Zombies Run! - A
by TaiKee
Summary: Claire volunteers for a mission in Abel Township to get further away from the bad memories in her life. Things do not go as planned when her chopper is shot down during transport. Can she trust the people she meets? Most importantly, can she trust her controller Sam Yao, who has not only her life, but her heart in his hands?
1. Chapter 1 - Jolly Alpha Five Niner

Chapter 1 - Jolly Alpha Five Niner

Claire sat in the helicopter flying over zombie infested territory, the miles passed quickly below. In the chopper was the pilot and herself. They were heading toward Abel Township, a small isolated settlement set in the vast sea of zombie-land. The pilot circled over the small settlement, giving Claire a good look at her intended destination.

"So, you can see the city now as we loop round. Well, they call it a city… Not much more than a few fences to keep the zoms out. Tiny little island of humanity. I just don't know how they live like that." The pilot looked at the ground without really seeing what was there. "Well I guess they won't be living like that much longer."

The pilot addressed her directly now. "So I expect you're not allowed to say what you're being dropped into the township for, huh?" She shook her head, indicating the pilot was correct. In all honesty, she did not know why she was here. Claire had just never been one much for small talk. She was used to keeping to herself. "Nah, I thought not. I know how it works. They don't even tell _you_ till you get there."

Claire smiled to herself and nodded again. _Isn't that the truth? They had said almost that exact thing._

"Abel Township, Abel Township this is Jolly Alpha Five Niner from Mullins Military Base. We're five miles out approaching from the east at one thousand one hundred feet, bringing in med supplies, some vac-packs, shelters and a temporary loan of one of our people. Abel Township Jolly Five Niner requesting permission to land."

A young man's voice responded over the crackling of the radio. "Got that. Er, I mean, roger that. You're clear to; yeah you can come on in."

"Roger Abel Township, heading down now." The pilot then spoke softer so only she could hear. "I can see clear as day we haven't got half the supplies we usually bring. That means we've lied to the township." She threw Claire another questioning look and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. You don't know anything. "Project Greenshoot"? Need to know basis? – Oh yeah, I heard them tell you that just as you boarded – and then you'll find out what your mission really is. But you know if you and me pooled info maybe we could…"

Claire was not sure if she heard correctly but she swore she just heard the sound of gunfire. She looked around wildly. The pilot echoed her thoughts. "Someone's shooting at the chopper! What the hell…? They're shooting! That's not coming from the township! Who the hell has a rocket launcher in this sector, who the hell has…?

There was a giant _**bang**_ and the entire craft shook violently. One of the rockets had hit its target. "We're hit. I've lost the tail rotor. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday." The chopper pilot was saying in a calm but urgent voice. "Jolly Alpha Five Niner is going down three miles east of the township. Two souls on board. Aircraft is grey with black lettering and trim. We're going in hard brace brace brace.

The young man's urgent voice comes over the headset once more. "This is Abel Township calling, this Abel Township calling. Supply copter can you hear us?"

The pilot did not respond as she focused her attention on trying to land the stricken craft.

The man from Abel could only listen and watch in horror at the scene unfolding before him. "They're going down fast, holy moly. Can any of you hear us?" he pleaded over the microphone. "Open your chutes! Jump! Jump!"

The pilot indicated she should do so. Claire did not need telling twice. She jumped out the side door without a second thought, pulling the chord once she had jumped clear from the area of the rotor blades. They were not far from the ground so she did not have much time. Her saving grace was the chute was caught in a tree resulting in her swinging heavily, instead of smashing into the ground.

The chopper went down with a crash behind her. There was no explosion, but the crashing through the trees and shrubs made enough noise to alert anything in the area of its presents. The area would be teaming with zombies within a few minutes.

Claire could hear the radio operator trying to raise anyone from their craft. "Hey, hey. I um. This is Abel Township calling, over."

She spoke softly as not to raise any notice to her location. It would only attract more zombies. Hopefully they would all be heading towards the crash site, but she was too close to that for comfort. "Abel Township, this is the passenger from Mullins Base. Do you copy?"

There was no response from the unknown man in Abel, he spoke again after a few moments. "They're not answering. Their comms equipment coulda been fried." She examined her headset. It was damaged the microphone that she usually spoke into was missing entirely.

"Fuck." She allowed herself one curse. They would have no way of knowing she survived, and from here she was not exactly sure which direction Abel was in. She hung from the tree in her chute as she looked around. It seemed safe, with no zoms in the immediate area. Her backpack was still on, and her miniature cross bow as strapped to her leg.

She undid the clips for the parachute and fell heavily to the earth. The man's voice came over her headset once more. "Listen, if you're alive, if there's anyone alive. This is Sam Yao from Abel Township. I'm just the… I'm just the radio operator man; I'm not supposed to handle this stuff."

_That makes two of us Sam Yao. _Her headset crackled with static. "You've come down in a nest of hostiles. They've heard the noise. They're coming. There are… thirty. No, forty. No… crap. Your only safe path is towards the tower, you should be able to see that from where you are. If there's anyone alive there, just run."

Behind her in the direction of the chopper, Claire heard a very faint, but familiar moan. Sam was right, they were coming. The voice she now knew as Sam was still talking in her ear. "Run!"

Running was something Claire was good at. Something she could do all day if needed. And most likely, the only reason she was still alive today. That and the small crossbow that she kept strapped Lara Croft style to her right thigh. She had learnt months ago to make her own bolts for the weapon. On her left thigh, was strapped a sharp bowie knife. Neither impeded with her ability to run; and both had saved her life on numerous occasions.

After she had run five minutes, the now familiar male voice came over her headset once more. Sam could now see the new person approaching on his scanners. He was speaking to someone that was in the room with him. "Wow there's… there's someone alive down there. Running. Hey, hey can you hear me?" he asked Claire once more. "No answer. Still, look at 'em go. Heading for the tower, just like I said."

"OK, running person, if you can hear me… you're going great. The main group's behind you and you're going to come out of this forest soon but there's a… yeah, I can't think of a phrase that's not "small army of zombies". Sorry, don't do so well under massive pressure… there's a one of those directly to the east of the trees, so if you head more towards the old saw mill, you should be able to see its massive red signs from where you are…"

He spoke to the people with him once more. "Man. Look at that. They're changing direction. They can… You can hear me! OK, OK, we can keep you safe. It's cool, it's cool, we can bring you in. No we can't ask them that. They might be injured."

Claire could now hear a woman's voice in the background. "All the more reason to ask them that."

She must have gained control of the microphone. "This is Doctor Myers, only medic here at Abel Township. Lord knows I'm sorry to ask you this, but your route will take you almost past the old hospital. We know there's medical kit still there from the first wave of infection. If you could pick up even one or two that would help us."

Sam shook his head in disagreement as he looked at the Doctor. "It's too dangerous. You know what happened to Runner 5…"

"The zoms have all followed the noise of the crash." The doctor argued.

"But what about whoever fired that rocket launcher?" Sam responded.

"If someone wants to kill that runner, taking an unusual route will make it harder not easier." The doctor spoke directly to Claire again. "I don't want to be hard-headed, but everyone in this township earns their keep. You should be able to see Robinson hospital now – one of the buildings, Gryphon Tower, is the tallest in the abandoned city. And if you can't find anything… we might not be able to let you in when you get here. "

_Your shitting me… _Claire thought… _I get shot at, I'm being chased by zombies, and if I don't get your file you won't let me in! I'm here in the first place because of you people!_

Sam's tone was almost apologetic. "OK, OK. Man, that's great, you're making good time. No broken legs I guess!" he said cheerfully. "Hey, listen, I'm gonna call you Runner Five. Just 'cuz… I don't know your name, and we just lost a runner. In that same hospital you're running through now. She was so fast, and really funny, and clever, and me and her… we sort of…, "Sam sighed. He had a crush on the previous Runner Five, though she had not returned the sentiment. "… She was amazing. But hey, you could be our new Runner Five." Sam added nervously. "If you make it back alive."

"Yeah, the runners are pretty important to keeping us going here…" he continued. "Any fuel we have goes to working the generators and the truth is if you've got two legs and you can go above a slow shamble you'll be able to stay out of the zoms' way, am I right?" Claire could hear Sam tapping a screen over the mike. "Huh. Yeah, OK, your pace is good, but maybe head through the ground floor of the hospital? There's a little swarm gathering in the parking lot I don't like the look of and…" his voice trailed off as he tapped the screen again watching the movement from the motion sensors.

"Yeah, that's good. You could even pick up anything interesting you pass. We think there might be some… well, we sent the old Runner Five there looking for some file the Doc's interested in. So, you know, if you find anything official-looking lying around…"

Claire looked around, glad she had a backpack with her. She threw any antibiotics she saw and first aid kits in immediately. She had no idea what they meant by official looking until she saw a small padlocked box marked the Centre of Disease. She grabbed it, and made her way out of the building. This would have to do.

"Hey, there you are!" the man's voice took on a friendly overtone as if they were being introduced in person. "I've got you on camera now, great to see you, even though you're kinda blurry!" All Sam could see really was a fair headed human covering a great distance in a short period of time. They also seemed to be carrying something. "Huh, what's that you're carrying? Look at this Doc, Runner Five picked up something in the hospital.

"Is that the Centers for Disease Control file?" Doctor Meyers asked in a shocked voice.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Runner 5, I don't say this lightly, that box could be worth your life to protect. Don't drop it." The Doctor grew quiet, then asked. "What's that shadow over there?"

"Oh no," he swore. "This was what… when we sent her out, this was what happened. They're following you Runner 5. The swarm from the car park, they're following you now, run!"

Sam sounded panicked as he could only watch the events unfold before him. "They're so fast, why are they so fast? They never run, why are they running? Runner Five, Runner Five they're gaining on you!"

Claire put on a burst of speed. She could hear the zombie moaning behind her, but she would not turn and look. That would waste time and energy. She had to push forward. "Runner Five! You're not far from the gates now. If you can keep going we'll send some people with guns out to meet you. Only one zombie is close to reaching you. Just put on a burst of speed now!"

Sam's voice took on a pined quality. "Oh god it's her. I can see her. It's… it's the old Runner Five. She's the one chasing you, she's… she's still wearing her uniform, she's…" Sam's voice broke, obviously this was difficult for him.

Another voice came in over the headset. "Runner Five. It's Runner Seven here, head of runners. The Doctor's told me you've found something useful in the hospital. We're sending out a couple of people to bring you in. Just keep running. As fast as you can."

Sam spoke encouragingly. "Don't look back. She's right behind you. Just run."

The air around her sounded with gunfire as the guards on the walls of Abel Township shot the zombies trailing behind her.

One ran out to meet her. "This way! This way! Run!"

Sam's voice cracked. "They're going to shoot her… I can't watch. I don't want to…"

The doctor was trying to comfort the young man. "It's what she would have wanted Sam. You know it is. She wouldn't have wanted to live like this."

One of the guards standing on the top of the wall yelled down to Claire. Run! We've got her!" A single gunshot rung out now and she heard something drop to the ground behind her.

Doctor Maxine Meyers placed a consoling hand on Sam's shoulder. They all knew how he had a crush on Alice. "They got her."

Sam had not been ready to see his old friend as a zombie, and was still shaken as he ran down the rickety stairs from the com shack. "Raise the gates! Raise the gates!"

Claire ran in and was immediately surrounded by people. She bent over trying to catch her breath, and calm her racing pulse. She also hated crowds on a good day, and this was not a good day.

"Welcome!"

"Hey, you picked up medpacks?"

"Want some water?"

"Great to meet you, come sit down."

"What were you doing in that helicopter anyway?"

"Did you bring any food? Any canned food? Dried food?"

"Hey! Good to see a new face!"

"The Major'll want to see you when she gets back…"

There was one voice Claire did recognize. Sam was now standing in front of her. "Hey, good to see you in the flesh! The… totally unbroken skin not bitten by zombies flesh, right?" he looked at her in concern. "Step back, step back everyone, don't crowd, give Runner Five some space. Can't take in so many new faces right now!"

Another anonymous voice spoke quietly. "You think that's who they've assigned? For Project Greenshoot?"

When Sam Yao looked at the short petite blonde with the long curly hair standing in front of him, the first word that went through his mind was "cheerleader". The kind of person that before the zombie apocalypse would not have given him the time of day. She had long cargo pants on; with a knife strapped to one side and a cross bow to the other. Runners, and a black t-shirt with three hearts and the word "LIFE" written under it. Half the last heart on the shirt was was missing.

After finally making it to safety, exhaustion and shock finally caught up to the young woman and the large box of assorted supplies she had grabbed dropped to the ground. Her blue eyes met his dark ones as her hand fluttered up to the large gash on the side of her head she had suffered during the crash. Claire fell into Sam in a dead faint, the adrenaline that had kept her moving finally starting to slow down in her system. He could not say he had ever had a beautiful woman faint in his arms before.

Sam watched on in horror as the security detail ran toward him to take her into custody. Normally they would tie her down and carry her off to the hospital for a full examination. This was a routine precaution in case she was bitten. For some reason he felt he needed to keep her safe. "Don't worry, she doesn't weigh anything and I'll take her to the hospital. Doctor Myers!" He yelled at Maxine to follow him.

He carried her to Abel's makeshift hospital, placing her on a cot to be examined. He left the room while Maxine checked her for bites. She had none, but she had a gash on her head from jumping from the plane, resulted in a severe concussion. The doctor felt guilty for sending her into the zombie plagued hospital in that condition, but she had survived so there was no use in deliberating the point now.

Claire woke up a few hours later, and asked the doctor if she could see the young man who talked her in to thank him. The doctor gave her a weak smile and pointed toward a giant three story galvanised shack with a rusted, aerial sticking out the top. "He'll be in the small room at the top."

She could feel the stares as she walked the short distance to the communications shack. Abel was a small community, with less than a hundred souls living there, and she was the new person. She stood out.

She knocked on the door, thinking this might have been a bad idea, as she could see some of the looks given to her were suspicious and untrusting. Unfortunately with the downfall of society also came the downfall of trust. Everyone was out for themselves, and you could rely and trust basically no one.

Sam opened the door, and looked down in surprise to see the new Runner Five standing alive and in one piece on his door step. Well the coms shack anyway. She was shorter than he recalled. He had thought she was the pretty cheerleader type last night when she turned up, but she was even more beautiful now standing here in the light of day.

Claire looked up at the tall, thin man with dark hair and oriental features that stood in front of her. "Are you Sam?" she asked him politely.

He nodded dumbly and stuttered he never did well around pretty girls, and he had a horrid day seeing his old friend Alice…

"May I come in?" he nodded and opened the door further, looking around in dismay at the mess the room was in. He slept in here; they liked to have the radio manned all hours in case of emergencies. Sam was a light sleeper anyway, and there were rarely any transmissions that were not from themselves any more.

Claire continued. "I just wanted to come and thank you for saving my life today. If you had not helped me get here, I'd be someone's appetizer right about now." Her face turned into a self-deprecating grin. "I'm too small for the main course."

Sam laughed despite himself. "I think you overrate what I do. I just tell you what to look for, you did all the running."

She shook her head. "You could have left me there and you didn't. I'm not stupid; I know people here don't trust me. It couldn't be more obvious." She shrugged. "I'm used to it. It comes with being the new girl I guess, and I did arrive in style."

They sat awkwardly in silence for a moment, before he tried to pick up the conversation once more. It was so much easier to talk over the radio. "Is that you're special zombie escaping shirt, or do the hearts and life mean something?"

Claire looked at him surprised. "Oh, I guess you weren't into video games then. This is from the best adventure series on the Nintendo ever, the Legend of Zelda."

"Not into video games!" Sam exclaimed. "I have you know, I am very, very, very good at video games actually."

"Just not the good ones then," she chided him. "Zelda is a classic! A _**classic! **_It's like not having played Donkey Kong, or Pac Man."

"You like the retro games then?" Sam asked curiously, he was actually starting to forget he was talking to a girl.

"They're the easiest thing to try to get working in this environment, as the technology was so much simpler then. She patted a USB key in her hip pocket. I have about five thousand roms on me for when…"

"Excuse me?" Sam said incredulously. "What did you just say?"

"Oh," Claire's face looked almost crestfallen. "A rom is a…" she started to explain.

"I know what a rom is." Sam waved her off. "I mean you have five thousand classic game roms on an USB stick in your pocket?"

She nodded. "And the MAME program required to run them. Just need to find some spare technology one day to play it on, it will take time but I'll get something made."

Sam's face lit up. "That would be so much fun! If you'd let me help?" he asked eagerly.

"If you weren't into the retro games before everyone went grey, what did you play then?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, bit of this bit of that, mostly x-box."

"Blah! Seriously? Why not PS3? SO much more console, and the platform specific games were so much better."

"All I have to say is Halo."

She actually started laughing at that. "Halo? That's all you got? God of War, Heavenly Sword, the entire Drake's franchise… you just played first person shooters?"

He shook his head, "No, actually I liked a lot of the role playing and adventure games also." He suddenly realized he was having an entire conversation with a very beautiful girl and he had not stuttered or fumbled once. Nor was he embarrassed talking about video games like he normally was around others. "Skyrim, Oblivion, Dragon Age, anything by BioWare really."

She studied him for a moment then grinned. "Alright Sam Yao, you have just redeemed yourself then. However if I ever get a small laptop and some power jerry-rigged then you will definitely need some education in some of the classics."

Claire got to her feet; she only stood as tall as his shoulder. "I supposed I better get a move on. Do you know where I would find someone called Evan; he's the head of runners?"

"Actually it's Everan, not Evan. So it's official then? He asked. "You're going to be a Runner?"

She nodded. "Actually I could run all day if I needed to. It's about my only really useful skill I guess." She said again, in that self-deprecating sarcasm. Most people would not notice it but Sam did, he recognized it often in himself. She had a haunted look in her eyes, which normally would cause a person concern. However these days, it was how most people struggling to survive looked.

"The Doc says I cannot start for another day though; apparently I hit myself sometime coming out of the helicopter and suffered a concussion. I don't _**usually**_ pass out at the end of a run."

She turned as if to leave, but then remembered. "I'm sorry about your friend today, Sam. Normally I'd say something like I hope to live up to her example and all that but… to be honest, I really hope not too." And with that she turned and left.

Sam realized guiltily that he had not thought about Alice until Claire mentioned her just now. He had heard stories about them before, women who liked video games. But like most young men with those interests, he assumed they were just stories made to give nerds like him hope. He laughed at his own joke. It was the same with Alice, as it was with all the girls before her, and as it would be with girls in the future. _You're a good friend Sam, but… _He'd given up truly hoping years ago.

Claire found Everan who showed her to the bunk she would be allocated as runner five. She had only a few personal items with her, and the clothes she came in with. She had another bag in the helicopter with more clothes and other supplies, but she had to count those as gone. She was given a few items of clothing that fit until they could make a run for the chopper. She threw on an oversized shirt and climbed into the top bunk, then pulled out her sketchbook and spent some time doodling some images she had of the day. Once done, she pulled the blanket over her; she allowed her mind to go blank and envelope herself in solitude, the safest place to be. Claire fell immediately into a deep and restless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Lay of the Land

**Chapter 2 - Lay of the Land**

Sam sat in his com tower watching the front gates. He had a perfect view from up here. Three rickety stories up, it was one of the highest buildings in Abel. "Raise the gates!" He ordered. "Runner Five ready… and go."

Everan appeared at Claire's side and spoke over the radio. "Thanks Sam, I'll take it from here."

"No problem Everan, I'll keep the comms link operational in case of trouble

Runner Five, Seven here is our head of runners."

"That's not an official title Sam," protested Everan.

Sam scoffed. "Oh unofficially."

Everan smiled as they started off on an easy jog to help warm up. It was good to start slowly when they could, save energy bursts for when they were really needed. "That's what I get for living longer than most of the others. I'll be taking you on a quick tour around the perimeter today. And show you the main routes into the city. Should be a quick, easy run."

The groan came over the microphone. "You know what happens when you say that," protested Sam.

"Whatever happens, we'll handle it." Everan spoke confidently looking at her with an unreadable expression. "We _**always**_ handle it."

Claire sighed as they fell into pace beside each other. _He obviously does not trust me either._

"We've decided to go with Sam on giving you the Runner Five designation. We're sad to lose the old Runner Five, but that's the reality of life on the ground. We've spoke to Mullins, the base you came from, and they're not willing to send down another heli until we know who fired that rocket launcher at you." Everan paused for a moment, allowing that to sink in. "So this is your new home, you're the new Runner Five, congratulations!"

_From the way he said it, Claire did not think congratulations were in order at all. She wondered how many "Runner Fives" there had been._

The head runner kept talking. "They've told you nothing about us I suppose. That seems to be the way up at Mullins Base, send people in, take them out, don't talk about where you're going, don't let anyone get attached." The disapproval was obvious in his voice. "It's not the way I'd run it, and it's not the way the Major run it here at Abel Township. We care about our people here and ask long as you work hard we'll take care of you."

_They did not trust her because she could not prove she was on the chopper, yet they did not trust her if she **was** the person on the chopper, because that person was from Mullins and Mullins could not be trusted. Oh what mess had she gotten herself into now?_

"So you see we're circling clockwise around the base, the bunker to your right, half of the reason we're here, look at it. Narrow slit windows close to the ground, we use it as the armory now, but at the start of the outbreak some of us spent three weeks sheltering in there whilst the world went mad around us. Thank God for survivalists building well stocked fallout shelters. And for the owner of this place, she still lives here with us. The other half is that farmhouse. Thick stone walls, you can see why those of us that knew anything about tactics came here. With just five rifles we fought off three hundred of the walking dead in our first week here."

Claire nodded her approval; Abel was built in a good location. "We're under the command of Major DeSanta; she lost most of her squad but managed to keep us all going. That's how we earned our place."

They reached a crest on the road where they had clear visibility all the way around them. They took advantage of that and stopped for a moment to catch their breath. Not that Claire was even close to being winded.

Everan frowned pointing down the valley. "Hmm what's that over there, can you see it? Caught in the trees downhill. Something white and fluttering. Just past that zombie lurching towards the pines." He motioned to her and they started jogging again toward the unknown object. "Might be nothing, might be something. Good target for a quick run anyway. Don't worry if that zom gets too close our sniper on the roof will be covering us.

They ran for abut ten minutes in silence until they had covered enough ground to make out what was caught in the tree. "Oh I think I see what it is. Mullins said you'd been with their base pretty much since the outbreak started. It's a government drop. Do you see that part hanging down? The green tab. Pull that and it should come straight out of the trees." He looked around at a noise that came from behind him. "Ahhh, we've got company. Our position between two large cities does mean that we get a steady stream of wondering dead. You should be able to do it, just put in a burst of speed now, and you'll get the government drop and outpace the zombie. Don't wait, run!"

Claire ran for the drop, while Everan ran decoy and distracted the zombies from what she was doing. Since there were only two, she simply stopped running and drew her cross bow from its holster. Both were following slowly after Everan, and she was able to take her time to aim and shoot each one neatly in the head.

She liked the crossbow. The bolts were small, and it was easy to carry. It was also deadly quiet and drew no attention when used, and most of the time she was able to retrieve the bolts to clean and use another day.

They collected some water, tinned food, meds and ammunition then stuffed them into their backpacks. They covered the rest of the items that they could not carry, and left a marker so it could be located later.

"That's good; I can see you'll be a valuable asset at Abel Township. We don't have bullets to waste on zombies, not unless we have to, and we certainly can't waste them firing wide. So we rely on runners. You will be well rewarded if you do a good job." Everan started out again at a slow jog. "Run along the main road with me here a while, I've got something to show you."

They continued their run of the perimeter of the Township. "See that castle on the hill?" he asked. "That's New Canton. For the most part we don't talk, they don't talk to us, and that's the way we all like it. And see over there? The burned mounds to the west? That used to be a little settlement, called themselves Scoobs, mostly teenagers; they were about the size of Abel Township. We don't know what happened to them, one day they were fine, swapping dvds with our runners. Keeping chickens, growing their own marijuana. Next day, burned out shell." He seemed genuinely puzzled as to what happened there. "Probably a zombie attack caused a fire somehow."

He looked over his shoulder to see a group of zombies that had started following them. "Right, another practice run. Let's outpace those zoms and head back to Abel."

They ran for a few moments before Seven started talking again. "You know, some people in Abel Township were worried about taking you in Runner Five. That rocket launcher attack spooked us all of course. We weren't aware that anyone in this sector had that kind of capability, and Mullin's base hasn't always been straight with us. Funny thing Runner Five, just before Scoobs settlement was destroyed, they'd had a man sent in from Mullins base, arrived on a heli just like you, with about half the supplies they had been expecting. Strange."

They were nearly back to the main gates. "Right, more zoms approaching from the east. Let's head back into Abel. You've done well Five; we'll have use for you soon."

Sam was coming out of the coms shack as Claire returned. Jack and Eugene, two men who ran Abel Radio, were taking their turn for the late afternoon evening shift as the Runners had all returned to base. Sam usually ate with the runners, as his main job was acting as their operator. Jack and Eugene had the radio broadcast until he pretty much kicked them out.

Claire was relieved to see his friendly face as she came in; constantly being around someone who obviously did not trust you was tiring. She hated being under constant scrutiny and just wished people would stop looking at her. She had found Sam easy to talk to, so far he was the only one that did not look at her like she was about to open the gate in the middle of the night and let the entire zombie horde ravish them in their sleep.

She reluctantly let Everan lead her over to the recreation area where they performed some stretching and warm down before getting their food rations and handing out the supplies they had scrounged while out exploring the area today.

Claire finished up her stretches then followed Everan over so he could show her how to get her evening meal. They sat with Sam and some of the other Runners as they ate. She had a hard time making small talk, and no on apart from Sam made any effort to make her feel included. She gave up any pretense as soon as she had finished eating and retired early to her bunk.

She had never had any problems entertaining herself anyway.


	3. Chapter 3 - Distraction

**Chapter 3 – Distraction**

Claire was not scheduled for any runs that day, but like a lot of people she gathered at the gates to watch the Runners leave and return each day.

Sam's now familiar voice came over the loudspeaker. "Raise the gates!"

"Oh,.. shit oh.. shit that's not supposed to happen!" Sam swore in frustration. "The gates are stuck." No one seemed to be moving or doing anything about it. "Can everyone see the gates are stuck," he yelled as no one seemed to be overly concerned. "Have we got an engineer?"

An insanely loud horn started to blare a warning as a voice came over the loudspeaker. "Runners, this is an emergency. The gates have stuck in the open position. We're open to all attack…"

_Great, _Claire thought, _so let's sound the horn and ring the dinner bell announcing our location then. _

Everan's voice came over the loudspeaker. "The following runners report immediately to the front gate. Runner Two, Runner Three, Runner Five, Runner Eight. Go, go go!"

_Everyone that had the day off… _Claire observed as she made her way toward the gates.

She heard Sam through her headphone's before she got there. "Runner Five, we need you ready to go right now." He never referred to the runners by their real names in the field, the operators tried to keep it professional and detached as much as possible. "Runner Five, we're pairing you up with Runner Eight here."

Claire heard someone coughing behind her. "Sorry about that, hey there, I'm runner Eight, Sara Smith. How you doing? Ready to go out and misdirect some zombies?" she asked with a smile.

Sam was busy trying to coordinate the other runners on their way out. Runner Seven might be unofficially in charge, but it was Sam that kept them together and alive in the field. "No time for chit chat, grab one of the noisemakers from the locker." He waited for the two of them to tie it on. "That's right, now get out there and run around and get the zoms to chase you while we fix the gates. Go! Run!"

The two ran out the front gate and started with a slow pace; the idea to get any zombies heading toward Abel to follow them instead. Usually, they wanted to travel unseen, this time, they wanted to attract as many zombies as possible. Once they had picked up a small trail of zombies following them, they headed out and away from the Township.

"Okay Abel Township," Eight reported. "We're clear. Nice steady pace, about ten of the zoms on our tail. It's all going well. How are you guys holding up?" She enquired of Sam.

"Yeah, not so well here Runner Eight. We're kind of…" he checked with someone behind him. "The motors are shot they're telling me. Looks like something got in there and chewed it up."

Runner Eight started coughing again. "Sorry about that," she apologized. "Bad chest cold. So do you guys want more time? She asked.

"The longer you can keep the zoms away the better," he replied.

"Got that, we're just having a great day out here," smiled Runner Eight. Me and my buddy runner number five can get to know each other," she started coughing again. The sound made both Claire and Sam nervous. Coughing made everyone nervous these days.

"Yeah, yeah, that cough… you're okay aren't you runner eight?" Sam asked in concern.

"It's just a cough!" Eight exclaimed in frustration. Everyone was mistrustful of a person with even a simple raspy voice.

"You know we just have to be careful, that's all, you know the drill. First a cough, then a rattle, then a moan..." he warned.

"That's how you know the dead are walking. It's just a cough Sam." Sara smiled at Five now. "He's always fussing about something." She addressed Sam again. "Hey Sam if it bothers you so much I'm turning off this transmitter. That way you won't have to hear my coughing…"

"Oh no you don't," Sam started to interrupt. "That's not how it works…" but it was too late. Sara turned off the transmitter that was powering both their signals. Their lifeline to the Township went dead.

"That's better, now it's just you and me," she said to her with a strange smile.

Claire was not stupid; she knew that this Runner did not trust her either. It was nerve wracking to be in such a vulnerable situation with someone that would not care if she were left for dead or not.

"So you just came down in that chopper a couple of days ago huh?" Runner Eight stated more than asked. "Must have been pretty scary. Seems like you were the only one that survived. At least, we haven't seen any other survivors."

"Actually it was, but I did not have much time to think about it. It took us both by surprise." Runner Five responded; she could hear the moaning sound of a zombie coming in close from behind.

She turned to see Eight pointing a gun directly at her head. "Duck down just a second there honey." Claire ducked in shock, hoping she managed to keep her face calm as Runner Eight shot a zombie that had lurched out of the underbrush.

"There we go. We don't usually have guns, there aren't enough to go round, but they try to help us out on a decoy mission like this." Eight continued talking as if it were nothing. "Amazing how you turned up here, just dropped out of the sky after one fired a rocket launcher at your helicopter. That's really strange isn't it? I mean, you were just bringing in supplies. We've been in touch with the military base a hundred miles north and they do some drops of meds and wet weather gear, that sort of thing. So, who would do a thing like that? And you know what I keep thinking about? How do we even know it was you on that chopper at all? We don't have a way to transmit pictures anymore, so we don't know what you would look like. Sure you turn up in the right uniform, but that could have been stripped from a body. You might not have been in that chopper at all. It might have been you that shot it down."

"I know how it looks, I did have I.D. and unless we get a run back to the chopper sometime, I don't see how else I can prove myself." Claire acknowledged.

"Duck your head down a minute, wouldn't want to hit you by mistake." She smile and aimed the gun directly at Claire's head again. Claire ducked and Sara shot over head at another zombie. "There, got him, that was a close one. You'd better stay close."

Claire did not want to be anywhere near the woman. She knew most people at Abel did not trust her, but honestly even she had no idea why she had even been sent there. She was happy just to be alive and to help out. However these thinly veiled threats against her life was not something she was used to, and it was causing her a lot of stress.

Sara smiled and turned the radio transmitter back on. It was obvious now she had turned it off so she could say what she needed to Claire without Sam overhearing. "Hey Sam, did you miss us? Just didn't want to irritate you with this cough that's all.

Sam's frightened and angry voice shot back across the com system. "Never, ever, ever, Runner Eight." He seemed at a loss for words. "Runner right, you know you never, ever turn your radio off. **_Never_** do that, okay?

Sara was all smiles again. "He gets lonely without us." She whispered.

"I heard that, and it's **not, about, me!** Okay! It's about keeping you alive. Eight more have joined the pack chasing you," he added. "You're still ahead of them, just keep going." His voice was filled with frustration.

We're heading west," Eight said. "Are we clear?"

Sam let out an annoyed breath. "This is why you never ever turn off your radio. There's a swarm to the west and we think they've…" he groaned. "Uugh… here we go, they've heard you. There's zoms to your west, east and… yeah south."

"Hmmm, well then, time to…"

"Head north," Sam cut her off.

"I got a plan." Eight said. "Hey Sam, runner five here hasn't had a chance to meet the neighbours."

Claire could almost picture Sam frowning. "You mean New Canton?"

Eight nodded as she ran. "I sure as hell don't mean the Zombies."

"Do we want to start a war with New Canton?" Sam asked nervously.

"Just a little payback Sam. Don't you remember how they herded those zoms towards us when they were building new Barracks," she reminded him.

"Err… Hmmm yeah…," Sam sounded indecisive. "But..."

"If the Major were here, we'd check with her. As it is New Canton's to the north. Our exit, is too the north. You **_know _**it makes sense." Eight spoke to the Runner directly next to her now. "Speed up, quick, towards New Canton."

Eight was coughing and breathing heavy; the new Runner Five wondered if the woman had been bit or if it was just a cold like she said. Either way she was not going to let her guard down around the woman. They ran for twenty minutes in the direction of the larger settlement. It was an easy run until gunshots rang out and dust sprang up from the road around them.

"Stop in the name of New Canton! Not a step further," a voice sounded over the loudspeaker at them.

"There are zoms behind us," Sara yelled out to them. "Run!" she encouraged Five.

"Stop!" the guard from New Canton shouted. "Stop or we shoot to kill!"

"Keep going," Runner Eight shouted.

_Was Sara trying to get her killed? _Claire winced as each bullet sounded like it was within inches of taking her life. Eventually, the gunshots faded in the distance. She heard the guard call them an obscene name, as they ran and left them dealing with the small group of undead that had been following them.

"Wahoo!" Eight cheered, "Well that's one way to take down a bunch of zoms. Oh don't worry about New Canton," she added. "They got the firepower to deal with them. Means you and me are home free. Hey Sam, how's the gate coming?

"Yeah, nearly there," Sam sounded distracted. "Come on in if you're not dragging a pack behind you."

Eight lowered her voice and subtly turned down her transmitter. "I guess this turned out to be less of a good time for a little chit chat than I hoped for Five." There was a slight menacing tone to her voice. "Truth is; I wanted to find out if I could trust you. There's some pretty strange stuff going on around here. The major is called away on urgent business, someone brings a chopper down, firing from the middle of the zombie wilderness, and you turn up like a white knight." Her eyes narrowed into slits as she looked at Claire suspiciously. "Too damn convenient five."

"We got her working again!" Sam's jubilant shout came over communal channel. "Welcome home runners, great run, not a single hostile anywhere near our gates."

"Oh yeah, me and runner five make a great team," she said jovially to Sam. "We'll be going out together all the time, won't we Five?"

Claire looked out of the side of her eyes to see Sara studying her intently. _Not if she could help it._

"Err yeah," said Sam, "Maybe not next time though. We're getting reports that there might be a child stuck in no man's land. Get some rest Runner Five because we'll need you to do another fast run as soon as you can."

The two women hardly talked the thirty minutes it took them to run back to Abel. Sara was all smiles and waves, but went her own way as soon as they ran through the gates. If it were only Runner Eight, Five would not have felt so outcast. She was always used to being on the outside, but to have people constantly scrutinizing her.

Claire was nothing but frustrated and found herself heading to the coms shack to see Sam. She did not bother knocking as she entered. "You need someone to check on a child?" She demanded.

Sam nodded. "Well yes, but after you rest."

"No Sam, now." She needed some alone time, being around people all the time made her crazy. She had energy to burn after that short warm up and mixed feelings about judged and mistrusted.

Sam could tell something was wrong; but Five did not want to talk about it. "Look, I can't let you go out so… agitated."

"I promise to tell you while I'm out there Sam," she promised. "I just have to get out of here." She turned her blue eyes up at him, almost begging. "Please?"

Sam groaned silently to himself. He found himself saying yes to her and wondered if he truly was an idiot; destined to fall for every woman that was completely out of his league.


	4. Chapter 4 - A Lost Child

**Chapter 4 – A Lost Child**

"Raise the gates." Sam shouted. The gate alarm sounded, announcing their departure to every zombie in the immediate area. "Runner Five ready. Gates are open, covering fire, and… go." Claire felt limber as she headed in the general direction Sam had pointed to her earlier. Her short run before while the gates were being fixed had been a good warm up, but she still had energy to burn.

"We've had that report confirmed Runner Five; there's a kid wondering in no man's land. You're heading right for it. Sometimes happens that way, you know? Zom attacks parent fights it off, gets bit, kills the zom, then, abandons the kid and runs as far away as possible so they won't eat it when they turn." She could hear him shudder at the thought. "Ugh."

"Children zombies are the worst though, aren't they? Sometimes in these scenarios the kids been bitten too. Watch yourself. But in this case… hmmm, we think not. We've been monitoring for a few hours, and kids usually turn faster than adults, faster metabolism, everything words faster. I saw a kid once went zom in under five minutes; parents watching. That was grim. Eww.

"I'd hate to have to see that." She replied.

"So, hey, Runner Five. You've already made quite the name for yourself around here. 'Specially after leading those zom past New Canton. We didn't expect to get a new runner so soon. But I knew someone would be coming in on that supply copter from the military base up north, but all they told me was that we'd be getting some more med kits some extra shelters with someone who knew how to put them up. Guess you were supposed to chopper in, show us how to build the shelter, then chopper out right?

"They actually didn't tell me Sam, they said I'd find out once I got here."

"Guess your guys don't won't to send another chopper for you soon considering what happened to the first one hey? Bummer. We're still no nearer figuring out what happened there. Didn't come from New Canton, didn't come from us, obviously. Ahhh didn't come from the city, nothing there but the walking dead and the day they start to use rocket launchers well all be in trouble. Seems like it might have come from the wilderness. Hmmm, kinda near where you're heading today?"

"Really?" Claire looked around herself curiously now. "I couldn't see where the shots were coming from in the chopper. I'll keep my eye out."

Sam checked his scanner, "Annnyway, you're doing great. Nice steady pace, all clear on the scanner up ahead. Just keep going.

Each runner's headset had two channels, one private and one public. Most runners kept their headset on private so they just spoke to their operator. If they needed to communicate with another runner, only then did they turn to the public channel. Sam could speak directly to one runner or all runners.

"Alright, so what's with the itchy feet," he asked curiously. "Why the rush to get right out again?"

Sam heard Runner Five sigh loudly. "They don't like me Sam."

"What? Huh… who doesn't like you?" he asked.

"Everyone," she said as she breathed out, ensuring she was not wasting energy talking. "They don't trust me."

"Ahhh, yes… well it does take some of them to get used to new people. And that rocket launcher attack has everyone worried."

"I know, but the attack was against me. I am the one who should be worried, and frankly I'm starting to wonder if someone in Abel wasn't behind it."

"Really? You think so? It's hard to imagine… though there were a few people in the field at the time your copter went down…" Sam sounded thoughtful. "Alright, you're getting close to the kid now." He could see more from the cameras set up throughout the area than she could on the ground. Claire could hear the child crying from the distance she was at, the thing would be attracting zombies from miles around. She would need to be careful, and get there quickly, if they wanted to save the child.

"I know the Major's always saying we don't have enough space back and base and every person has to pull their weight and taking all comers is kind of how New Canton got into the trouble they're in now, but still, I'm glad everyone's on board with not letting children die from exposure. Its basic ground rules of human society. You know? Huh."

Claire had a good steady pace going now, but kept her responses short. "Agreed." It was not always easy to run and have a conversation all the time. She frowned and looked around, she could hear something approaching from the distance, but it did not sound like a zombie.

"Hey, can you see that? There's some movement on the scanner and you should be able to see the kid any second now. I think they're heading towards you."

"I can hear a vehicle Sam." She said over the child's desperate screams.

"What's that? Oh, man, someone else incoming, looks like they're coming up behind you, heading for the kid too. If you don't hurry, they'll get there before you do. Run!"

Claire picked up the pace as much as she dared, making sure to leave some energy reserves for the trip back carrying a wailing infant. It would just be like a decoy mission with a giant noisemaker.

A loud male voice yelled out over the sound of the screaming infant, "Go back where you came from, give that kid to me!" The motorcycle was closing in on her fast.

Sam was also talking fast into her head set, "Okay, okay I don't know what that guy wants and he's practically on top of you, but you're still ahead, just put on a burst of speed now and you'll find that kid. Just grab it and keep on running, I'll think of something."

The noise in her head was almost too much, but she had to save the child. The kid was screaming; the man behind her yelling; the motorbike's engine was loud. Every zombie in a hundred mile radius would be closing in on them soon. Every instinct in her body screamed to leave them, and go in the opposite direction and save herself. But Sam wanted her to save the kid. He was right, it would be inhuman not to.

Claire had thought years before all this happened that she had already lost her humanity. It was why her parents had her committed in the first place. She was just too difficult. She scooped the little girl into her arms and kept running, the man pulled up on the motor cycle behind her and stopped.

"Put that child down! Give her to me." he demanded.

"Err," said Sam. "Yeah keep running."

_Not too helpful there Sam…_ she thought to herself.

"Put her down!" He demanded once more. "Molly? Molly, it's okay, Daddy's hear, don't worry, I'm going to take you home. Give her to me."

"Err," said Sam again, not sounding too convinced. To be honest Claire was not too convinced either. If this man was her father, what was the child doing out here? "Yeah, actually…"

"The name's Ed," the man interrupted. "That's my daughter Molly. I know you're just trying to help out, but if you pass her too me we can go home. Come on Molly. That's a good girl. See, I've got Mister Rabbit here for you. Here's Mister Rabbit"

The girl in Claire's arms laughed and waved in response. Clearly it was a favourite toy of hers. Okay, there was a possibly he was telling the truth.

"Whatever heartwarming things are going on over there guys, there are five zoms closing in on you…" Sam warned.

"Just pass her to me, then hop on the back of the bike and…" the bike decided at that moment to sputter and die. "God damn it, out of fuel. Okay, pass Molly to me and let's run." Claire nodded and handed the man his daughter.

"Which way are they coming from Sam?" She asked.

Molly was chatting happily with Mister Rabbit as the two adults ran for their lives. "I've seen you guys before," the man was not a runner and breathed heavily under the pressure. "Abel Township, yeah, Becca always said we should join up with you guys. Hey, I don't want to abandon the bike, and I know of a fuel dump near here. If I take you there, will you help me carry some back? You can keep some for yourself," he added. "I guess like everyone else you guys are interested in finding fuel."

"Another three zoms on your tail keep up that pace." Sam said into her ear. _Not surprising with these two make enough noise to wake the dead. _

"I guess you're wondering how Molly here, what a strong girl you are Molly hey? Strong and brave girl. I guess you're wondering how she ended up out here by herself. I can only guess myself. But me and Becca, we've been holed up in a farmhouse about eight miles from here, we… we've been okay you know?"

Ed continued with his story. "I went out hunting, to bag some birds, usually bought down two dozen pigeons in a day. Never stayed out overnight, but last week, damn, I got stupid, made too much noise, didn't keep moving enough of somethin', before I knew it, forty zom surrounding the farmhouse where I holed up to shoot. No enough ammo had to take each one down with a head shot. And then more came, and then more, and more, like I stumbled into a nest. I was away for five nights, six days, before I finally took down the last one and left. By the time I got back home, Becca must have thought I was already dead. She left a note for me saying, saying she was walking to Abel, and on the way I guess, well, she ran as far away from Molly as she could before she died. I guess that's the last thing she could do to protect our daughter."

They ran in silence for a few minutes as Ed led them to his fuel store. "Okay, fuel dumps just over the next ridge. We'll just pick up a couple of cans each, and then head back to the bike. You know, the last time I was down here I saw that some guys had setup campfire, new guys, hadn't seen them before, wearing some kind of blue uniform, just over here." He laughed and pointed to their campsite. "They left their rocket launcher."

Claire stopped for a split second in shock, before she came to her senses and kept moving. Here was the camp of the people who shot down the chopper. There was nothing much there apart from the rocket launcher and a strange looking black box. She picked up the rocket launcher and flung it over her shoulder and grabbed two cans of fuel.

"Whoooow! Got you on the cameras. You guys found fuel." Sam's surprised voice made Claire smile. "You're just getting more and more popular around here Five. Err, what the hell are you carrying there?"

"It's the rocket launcher Sam. We found the camp they attacked me from."

"Its okay honey, we're nearly there," said Ed, "we're nearly back at the bike. Guess those guys must have just left this launcher. Weirdest thing, a thing like this is valuable. Even more so now than before. Can you take Molly? Just run with her while I fuel up the bike, just in case."

The zombies were still following, so to distract them Claire started to sing as she ran with the small girl. Sam listened in shock as his new Runner Five sang with one of the most beautiful, clear voices he had ever heard. He was pretty sure that she thought he was not listening, so he was not going to interrupt. The zombies in the area were indeed following her instead of heading towards the man desperately filling the gas tank on the stranded motorcycle. Watching Claire run in circles on the camera while singing an old Suzanne Vega tune had Sam absolutely captivated. He'd always admired some of the runners that could run and talk at the same time, not all could. He had never seen someone sing and run.

Claire heard the motorbike fire up and approach her from behind. The zombies were following closely behind her also, as she was slower carrying Molly. "Hey, hey! Get away from that Runner!" She heard Ed yell. "I'll get my tire iron." She heard a great splat and assumed Ed had taken care of the problem. He slowed the vehicle down beside her.

"Got her working just fine, little drink was all she needed. So, guess you guys at Abel Township will be using my fuel dump now huh? And well not sure I want to go back home now that Becca's; well we don't know what's happened. I guess she could be okay, I guess so. Anyhow, I guess you guys could use a decent mechanic over at Abel Township, yeah?"

"That guy just took out two zoms from the back of his motorbike," Sam was telling someone. "Tell him we'll take him in." he added for Five.

"Okay, I got the launcher strapped on nice at the back, and the extra fuel cans, Molly riding up front with me. Hey there miss Molly! But I don't think there's room for, well, I guess you're gonna have to run." Ed apologized then drove off.

It took Claire an extra half hour to make it back to Abel, and by then the hoopla over another new resident had died down somewhat. Only one person waited to greet her as she ran back into the safety of the compound, and that was Sam. He always was waiting for her each time she returned from a mission. Even if he was not down in the entry itself, he would step out and wave to her, then go back on the radio until all his runners were back. Sam took his job very seriously.

Claire now found herself looking for him each time she returned. She did not notice it herself, but the other residents did. Everyone was talking about how the new elusive and aloof Runner Five, only spoke to or associated with one person. Sam Yao.

It was not entirely true, as Claire had spent a lot of time also speaking to Doctor Meyers. There were things about Claire the Doctor needed to be aware about. For a doctor, Claire liked Maxine. She head dealt with a lot of doctors in her life and hated most of them. Maxine just nodded and accepted what she was told, the started working with a plan with Claire to address her problem.

The new Runner Five had spent most of her life on a variety of addictive medications. She had a few months' supply, but they were not going to last forever. She knew that needed wean off them before she ran out and the consequences were direr. The no nonsense doctor was the only person in Abel that knew the truth of where she had originally come.

The doctor had known something was up with Claire the moment she had inspected her unconscious body for bite marks upon arrival. The young girl had a lot of scars from cuts; self-inflicted cuts. She also had an institutional tattoo. An abhorrent practice in one of the local asylums, those residents in their psychiatric wards that were high flight risks were tattooed with a barcode, identifying them as inmates. If she had the equipment to check, she would almost guarantee also that the young woman had an RFID chip embedded somewhere under her skin.

A condition of the doctor not telling anyone was weekly counselling sessions as they reduced her medication and monitored the effects. She only had three weeks left now on regular dosages, their plan would stretch that into six and by the end she should no longer be reliant on the cocktail of antipsychotics and various mood altering drugs. She had already began reducing the dosage herself, and admitted to the doctor she knew how bad things could go if she went cold turkey.

Every Runner had to report to the hospital for a bite examination upon return. After she had been given the all clear by Doctor Meyers, she exited the building into the late afternoon sun. She found herself almost wishing he had another mission to do rather than spend the time alone with little to do.

She was surprised to find Sam waiting outside for her. "Hey Five," he smiled. "All clear?"

"Well they let walk out alive, so I guess so," she grinned.

"You did good work out there today Five." He said. "Saving a child, and ultimately her father. New fuel store for us, and now we have a mechanic."

Five shrugged. "Anyone would have done the same thing if they had that mission."

Sam looked at her sadly, "Perhaps once, but not anymore. You weren't the first Runner I asked to go. It was an optional mission not necessary to the safety of Abel. Some turned it down because a wailing infant attracts too many of the undead."

The two friends walked to the rec centre together, not noticing the heads that turned or the whispers that followed them as they went.


	5. Chapter 5 - Paul Revere

**Chapter 5 - Paul Revere**

Janine's annoying voice came over Abel's loudspeaker system. "Runner Five, Runner Five, report to the main gates, immediately Runner Five it's an emergency."

"Where is the switch that makes the…," The horn sounding the gate opening went off, drowning out what she was saying. Claire stood at the gates looking at the com shack dubiously. She fastened her headset on and let Janine know she was ready.

"Ah excellent," she seemed to have found what she wanted. "Runner Five, you're the only person available, and we rather desperately need you to run to..." Janine sighed in frustration, "why does Mister Yao keep this place in such a god awful state. It's not as if we have infinite resources for him to… Eww…" Janine yelled in disgust.

A noise in the background came over the headset, as someone entered the shack. Claire prayed it was Sam. "What the hell do you think you're doing in my com station Janine?" He demanded.

Janine did not care; she looked at the ikky substance stuck on her hand. "Never mind that, what is this brown sticky goop covering the desk underneath your keyboard… please don't tell me its.."

Sam interrupted the woman's tirade, "It's Marmite, Janine. Plain, simple, ordinary, delicious Marmite."

"Why have you..."

"The jar broke. I may have been demonstrating how to use it to crush a zombie skull. Now get out of my chair, and away from my mike. You know we have a deal. I don't interfere with your private quarters, and you don't…"

"It's an emergency," she interrupted him.

"So much of an emergency you couldn't come and find me?" Sam accused her.

"We've had word on the Rofflenet that about seventy zoms are heading for Brunswick, but their communications are down; we can't raise them. We need to send a runner to get there ahead of the horde to tell them what's coming."

"Err, yeah right, yeah, that is an emergency." Sam put his headset on and Claire sighed in relief. "Runner Five, Run!" He hated to admit that Janine was right; the woman rubbed him up the wrong way. Sam also hated having people watching him over his shoulder, and he had been looking forward to talking to Five in privacy over the headset once again.

Claire set off in the direction of New Brunswick, she ran at a quicker pace than normal in order to get there before the large wave approaching the small settlement arrived.

"Okay, Five yeah, well it looks like Janine was right, one of the New Canton satellite settlements fell a few nights ago, we don't know what happened, probably the usual, someone got bitten, didn't want to admit it, came back home, and bam, seventy new zombies, wondering the wilderness.."

"And there's the fire..." Janine commented over his shoulder.

"Yes," Sam said in frustration, "Thank you Janine, I was just getting to that, Brunswick is fairly isolated, they used to be Brunswick Technology Park set in forty acres of rolling, countryside. Not grey food stocks, but a coms hub, and they traded working tech for supplies…"

"Until the fire…" Janine interrupted again.

Claire wished she was not running through zombie filled countryside, otherwise she'd tell Janine to shut up herself. As it was, she could not risk the noise.

"Alright, thank you!" Sam said again. "I was getting there. They had a fire. Last night, one of their buildings went up like a torch, killing their aerials. Still burning through, no fire engines to put it out now. We had a Runner arrive this morning from Brunswick to bring us the news, and we've sent one of our guys to take them some emergencies but…"

"Their communications are gone..." Janine interrupted yet again. "We can't tell them that the fire is attracting the zombies like moths to a flame. If moths wanted to eat your face off."

"That's… poetic," came Sam's sarcastic response. "And creepy…"

"I have friends in Brunswick. Good people. Equipment from Brunswick is what keeps you able to talk to your runners Mister Yao."

"So yeah there are seventy zoms moving at a slow shamble towards Brunswick, and if you can't keep up the pace Five…"

"Soon there'll be fifty more zombies in Brunswick." Janine said ominously.

Five continued running in the direction of New Brunswick, taking the most direct route possible. Like she did not have enough pressure anyway, let's add another fifty lives to that.

"Yeah I see them," she heard Sam speaking into her ear again. Not only was he in her thoughts a lot lately, he was literally in her head. She giggled to herself. "That's, wow, haven't seen that number on the move for quite a while. Five, you probably won't be able to see them yet, they're screened by the curve of the hill. But if Brunswick is at err, twelve o'clock, there's a massive pack heading towards them from hmmm, ten past ten? Quarter past ten. Well, sometime in the pre elevenses direction anyhow. The point is, they are nearer Brunswick than you are and Brunswick won't be able to see them even if they're looking out. You're doing well though. If you manage to keep steady at that pace, you're there a good forty minutes before the zoms? Hmm is that enough, maybe try speed up a bit."

"Runner Five, Runner Five!" Claire heard someone yelling at her from just ahead, not over the headset.

"Did you…?" Sam asked. "Is that something through the headphones?

"Runner Five! Over here!"

"Is that...? Hmm Janine, didn't we send Runner One to Brunswick this morning? That's what I was told before my break."

"No," Janine replied. "Mister Pulse is still recovering after that nasty business with the exploding munitions."

"Oh, yeah…" said Sam. "That was unpleasant, so yes, I definitely have a bit of paper here somewhere to tell me whose out in the field at any one time. Just hang on, let me…"

"Runner Five, it's me, Runner Eight. They sent me to Brunswick this morning..."

"That's runner Six," said Sam. 'Maggie Doane out there."

Sara was approaching her now. "My headsets on the fritz again so I can't get in touch with Sam, to tell him…"

"I'm almost sure, one hundred percent certain…" Sam was saying.

"There's no one left in Brunswick Five. We've taken them all to shelter in the woods until the fire dies down, yes just over there."

Sam was still rustling papers through the headset. Claire was getting a headache to follow both conversations.

"It's not far from where we are, around ten o'clock." Runner Eight was explaining.

"Oh, right no sorry, there's a little fleck of marmite on the paper and..."

"Sam I've got Eight here with me." Claire told him.

"Oh right…

"Okay Five, if what Sam says is right then we've got a lot of people to warn. The people from Brunswick are split between four camps along the hill here." Runner Eight pointed Five in the direction she needed to go. "You need to go from one to the next to tell them the zombies are coming. We can outpace them easily, I'll head to Brunswick now and probably barricade the... barricade the east building. The one furthest from the fire. To keep the people safe until Abel can send help to handle the zoms."

"Yup yup, I heard all that." Sam replied. "That's good I'm pretty sure if the Major was here she'd have something, stirring to say, but since she's not, all I can say is…"

"There are fifty people depending on you to keep running. You're going to save lives." Eight said.

Sam agreed. "What she said. Go!"

When Claire had run on the treadmill in the hospital she would run for hours and practice her singing at the same time. It was a good breathing exercise and she actually tended to be a bit obsessive compulsive on top of everything else. Unconsciously, she was once again singing softly under her breath, not really thinking that Sam was sitting in the coms booth, smiling to himself that he got to see a part of her that no one else did.

In actuality, Claire did not sing in front of anyone, but on the mike out in the field she felt anonymous. Out here she was not Claire she was Runner Five.

Sam waited until she had finished sending the first group of people back to New Brunswick before he interrupted her. There was nothing to really let her know, and all he could do really reassure her. "You're doing well, that's twenty people heading back to Runner Eight's barricades. Keep going, those people are depending on you, the zombies are coming."

"Thanks Sam." Hearing her voice come back to him made his heart skip a beat. He smiled as she started humming again and sang softly as she ran toward the next camp. He was pretty sure she did it to help calm her nerves; running through zombie infested countryside was not for the faint of heart. Within ten minutes she had made it to the second camp.

"Okay, you've sent another fifteen people back to Runner Eight's barricaded building I see the last group just ahead of you, and you are still in front of the zoms, just about, these guys can see the zoms they just need to know to go. So if you wave at them…."

Claire raised her hand hoping that someone was looking out in her direction.

'Yes! They're following." Sam said in relief.

Janine's voice came from behind him. "Oh I see Mister Jones! Mister Jones… thank god you got him out."

"Janine!" Sam stated in surprise. "Are those tears Janine?"

"Certainly not Mister Yao!" Janine denied. "I'm grateful to Runner Five that's all. Ben… Mister Jones and I worked together a few years ago when I was in the private sector."

"Oh yeah…" said Sam speculatively.

"Yes, and I thank you not to ask questions. I'm grateful he's alive. You've done good work today runner Five. You saved those people's lives. Now; back to Brunswick as quickly as you can. You and runner eight can shelter behind the barricade until we send some runners to deal with the zombies. Brunswick is very important to the operation of Abel, Runner Five, you've done more than you know today.

* * *

Many of the New Brunswick residents wanted to approach Claire and thank her for the warning, but the small woman was sitting in a way that discouraged visitors. She spoke to no one until she found Sam's smiling face once more as she ran in Abel the next morning. She was not disappointed; Sam was waiting for her, hoping to spend some time with his new friend.

They took their rations to the com shack and sat eating together. She felt very relaxed around Sam, and felt that perhaps out of anyone here in Abel, he would be willing to accept her for who she was. To be honest though, she was too afraid to put herself out there. People she knew and loved had thought her too much trouble and cast her out. Why would Sam be any different?

They sat next to each other on two small single chairs that were crammed into the small room. A desk sat against one wall and his small one man cot on the other.

They discussed the day's run, and eventually get into the surprise romance between Janine and this Mister Ben Jones.

"Why is that surprising?" Claire asked.

"Janine just doesn't seem the romantic, in love type."

"Everyone deserves love, Sam, why does it have to be a type?"

Two slices of bread sat on the plate in front of them and their hands touched as they reached toward it at the same time. Both of them jumped as if they were burned and Claire went red as Sam's eyes caught hers for what seemed like an eternity.

Her heart started to race as she pulled back and frantically looked away, trying to cover up her nervousness. Sam, meanwhile, was doing the same thing, but he risked one more glance toward her face. She was blushing and avoiding eye contact with him now. He looked down; the hand she reached out for the bread for again was shaking.

"Sorry," she mumbled an apology, then got up and raced out of the room. She did not stop until she was safely in her bunk, listening to the room full of people sleep and snore. Her heart was racing, being around Sam was bringing up emotions she was not sure she was ready to feel and it scared her. She lay curled up in bed going over all the reasons in her head why she was not good for anyone.

Meanwhile Sam was still sitting on his bed staring at the door she had just run out of thinking he'd just been rejected once more.


	6. Chapter 6 - Recovery

Chapter 6 – Recovery

Claire, aka Runner Five had a few days rest after the desperate run to New Brunswick. She was at loose ends with the spare time, and found herself spending time hanging around the coms shack, without even realizing that was what she was doing. She climbed the ladder attached to the building and unknown to Sam spent her time sitting on the roof, overlooking the zombie infested wildness, drawing and taking notes in her sketchbook.

It was with relief on the fourth day that she reported in for another run, even if it were partnered with another Runner. "Raise the gates… Runner Five ready… Gates are open… covering fire and go."

"Sooo, just checking my mission sheet for your status. Yeah there's no mission sheet, you've seen my office. Or should I say corrugated iron hut we decided that was no good for a latrine with enough electricity to power the transmitter but not enough some days for I don't know. Light? Did you hear that Janine?"

"S'ok," he said to Claire. "Don't worry about me Runner Five, just trying to keep everything together here while Janine..," he sighed in frustration, "What **_are_** you doing with the electricity Janine?"

"Remember you are in **_my _**house Mister Yao." Janine reminded him.

"Err, yeah," he stammered. "I thought we did away with the entire private property after the whole, end of civilization? Remember that?"

"I remember this place was my farmhouse before all of you arrived. And I remember that I am the only one who knows where all the junction boxes are. And that is because I wired the place myself. So yes, those tools we were expecting from the military base would be pretty useful right now. Any word on what?"

"You should stop holding that over people's head Janine." Five threw in over the speaker. "I'm sure no matter how much you prepared you would not have survived alone."

"Yeah, yeah right." Sam said, uncomfortable with how the conversation was going. "Yes so, uh, we're sending you back to your helicopter today. See if there's anything you can, aahhh, find in the wreckage, and, I've got a little surprise for you…"

Claire turned around to hear Runner Eight jog up behind her, still coughing. _Oh great, another run with someone that would willingly feed me to the zombies._

"Hey Five, remember me? You're old pal Runner Eight?"

Claire simply nodded in greeting, and continued running toward the area her chopper went down.

"We're on the road together again," Eight said, casting Five a penetrating look. "Isn't that great?" The woman coughed; obviously she had not shaken her chest cold yet.

As they ran along together, Claire started to wonder if Sam pretending to like her was real or not, as he kept sending her out with people who obvious did not want her around. Perhaps it was all an act; she should have been more careful about who to trust. If there was one thing she had learnt early in life, it was trust and rely on no one.

"We're making good pace here Five," Eight remarked. "We're heading into hostile territory, you remember from your first run in? But if we just keep running and don't stop for long at the chopper, we'll be just fine. I'm pretty interested to see what we'll find in that chopper you know. That's why I volunteered for this duty."

_Oh thank god, Sam didn't send her. They'd either asked for volunteers, or she'd just offered. _

"I know what people say, don't think about the past, just keep your eyes on survival, but I…" Eight coughed. "But I just can't help wondering about things. I mean I got the same problems as everyone else. Lost my husband and my two boys once the dead took the east. Had to take them out myself when they came back. Only had a shovel to do it with. I never would have thought I had the strength in me, but you know like they say we didn't know ourselves until this happened. You never know what you're capable of."

"Well, I won't ask your story. You'll share it when you're good and ready. No one's story is ever good, is it Five? Anyhow, I didn't expect to wind up somewhere like Abel Township, for a while there I thought I might go mad. But turns out I can run really fast. I always used to run in school and college back when I was a girl, and that a useful skill these days. Useful enough for me to earn my keep, in lots of places." She coughed again. "Oh, this damn cough." She said in frustration. "It just won't quit."

They were drawing nearer to the crash site now. They could hear the sound of someone else coughing, and this time it wasn't Eight. "I know I'm loud," Eight remarked, "but that wasn't an echo we've got company."

There were supplies and bits of wreckage scattered throughout the area. Claire picked up various items and stuffed them into her backpack as they made their way up to the chopper was quietly as they could. They could hear movement, but could not quite pinpoint where it was yet.

"Hey Runner Five, Runner Eight," said Sam. "You're out of range for Runner Eight's transmitter, but I guess you can still hear me. You're getting close to the chopper and we've got movement. Hostiles behind you, just like we expected. Something up ahead too. Watch yourselves, because I… Janine is this really necessary?"

"Unless you want the whole bases electricity to go down in the middle of the night, got to replace this wiring right here…" Janine pointed out.

"Yeah... Apparently it can't wait. They are switching off transmission and scanner. Only for a few minutes," Sam added reassuringly. "You'll be on your own guys, you'll be fine."

Claire's heart raced in panic. She did not trust Runner Eight. Anything could happen while Sam was off air. "Unless we turn on each other hey?" Runner Eight added, echoing Five's thoughts. "Who **_is_** that coughing?" she added with a frown.

Sam was worried; he heard that last comment and had been questioned by Eight about Five on a few occasions now. He knew she didn't like the newcomer. "Okay, I'll be back in just a minute, sorry about this guys, you know if I could do it all myself..."

"You'd be a very valuable asset to this base Mister Yao." Janine added with her usual sarcasm.

There was click in her ear as the line to Sam disconnected.

"So, we've reached the chopper and holy… is that your pilot? Yes, the girl that's reanimating from the dead right now. She must have been left half eaten strapped in like that for days in the seat of the chopper, now she's… oh holy Mary mother of god, run!"

The two women ran around the crash site, the dead half eaten pilot now shambling slowly after them. "Hey Five, I've got a plan, we've got to find out what's in that chopper, so I know how this sounds, but trust me. If you circle around that way, she'll chase you. I'll head back round quietly to the chopper to see what I can find. Deal?" Claire nodded. "Okay, I'll catch up to ya. Remember, the newly reanimated are the quickest. Run really fast."

Five ran wide circles around the crashed helicopter while Runner Eight sifted through the wreckage. After five minutes, the Runner finally emerged from the twisted metal and ran to catch up with Five.

"Got them, here I can't carry all this stuff, you take some." Eight passed Five a few bags full of supplies to stick in her backpack. "Well, you know what I found back there? Your ID. It's looking pretty good for you, there's your picture, there's your military cred. Guess you're just a raw recruit like the rest of us huh? Well I hope you don't mind Runner Five, but I guess I'll be handing this to the head of Runners when we get in. Just because you know, a bunch of us were wondering who you really were, and this, well, this is looking really great for you."

Claire sighed. "Perhaps the rest of you can stop treating me like I've gone Grey then."

She turned to her. "Imagine what I would have had to do out there, if I had found someone else's ID in that chopper. Just imagine. Wouldn't wanted ol' Sam to hear that, he's a good kid." She pointed out seriously.

Just as Claire was about to retort, static appeared in their headsets once more. "Aaannnddd we're back!" Sam's voice made her smile, even though she could not help it. She did not notice, but Runner Eight was watching her reactions very carefully.

"I've got it working, even boosted your signal a bit." said Janine.

"Did I miss anything?" asked Sam in concern.

"Just the pilot reanimating from the dead, running for our lives. Nothing unusual." Five remarked off hand.

Eight threw Claire a sideways glance as they ran back toward Abel. "You know Five, I didn't know whether to trust you at first, I've been in that military base myself you know, never saw you there. But I guess people move around a lot, yes, I was there, well nearly five months ago. Just after the outbreak hit, they gave us all these shots, told us, it might be a vaccine. Might be a punch in the eye you know. A lot of people thought they had the vaccine then. Remember how they said on the news, it's like smallpox, it's like rabies, 'l have a vaccine in few weeks. Yes, pie in the sky. But a bunch of us thought we could make it to family down south. Well, I guess you know how those journeys turned out. I was lucky to find Abel Township before I got bitten. Anyway, I keep in contact with a bunch of those people, back in the base and I guess it's my job to say… you and me; we need to talk sometime Five. About Project Greenshoot."

Eight said they would talk later about her mission, and they ran the supplies back to the base in relative silence; with only the occasional check in from Sam. Claire did not know what these people wanted from her, or what they expected her to do, and she was not sure she wanted to find out.

So far, after returning from her missions she had spent each night visiting with Sam, but after last night Claire wondered if things might be awkward. She had a sneaky suspicion that he might have guessed how she felt about him, and she was not sure what she was scared of more; that he did not return her feelings or if he did.

In the end she decided her best recourse was to pretend as if nothing happened, so she grabbed her rations and headed to the com shack as she did each evening. He seemed surprised but happy that she had shown up again. "Are you okay after going back to the crash today?" he asked concerned as she entered the small room and they sat down to eat together again.

Claire shrugged. "That really did not bother me. I jumped out when you told me too, so I wasn't in the chopper when it hit… and I only met the pilot at take-off…"

"You jumped out of many choppers then?" He asked in curiosity? "Were you military before this?"

She shook her head. "Lord no! That was my very first one, and I didn't do that well if you recall, I turned up here with a concussion."

"I'm just glad you turned up at all." Sam said before he could stop to think about what popped out of his mouth.

But what he said had actually made her smile for the first time that day. "Thanks Sam. I needed to hear that today."


	7. Chapter 7 - Tess

**Chapter 7 – Tess**

Sam was on his break in the rec centre, eating at a table with Doctor Meyers. "I noticed you have become quite friendly with our new Runner Five." The doctor observed.

The young man looked at the Doctor in surprise. "I suppose, no more so than anyone else though."

Maxine laughed. "No, not like anyone else from what I can see. She talks to **_you_**, but trust me, she barely cracks a smile or a word to anyone else. She keeps to herself pretty much unless she's out running."

The good doctor watched Sam blush as her words struck close to home. "Just be careful Sam, you don't know anything about her, okay?" she warned.

* * *

The emergency horn sounded as gunshots rang out. Janine's voice comes over the com. "Calling Runner Five, or Eight, or both… Runner Five and Eight report to the gates."

"Runner Five Runner Eight urgent assignment, Sam's on a rest period, but we've discovered a traitor in the camp, we need you to chase her down before she gets away." Claire nodded.

"Copy that Janine," said Sara, "On my way."

"Oh how's this go again… Raise the gates!" Janine yelled. "Covering fire."

"Runner Five, Runner Eight, there is a girl that called herself Tess heading toward New Canton now; she's stolen three working laptops from my stores, as well as large memory devices." Janine updated them on what had occurred. "She's fast, we need to catch her before she gets there, go!"

"Looks like it's you and me again Five; the dream team."

Claire smiled, _oh great… at least she knows I was the person on the chopper now though. Perhaps it won't be as bad now._

There was no chit chat this time as they ran, both running as fast as they could in order to catch up with the fleeing technology. "We're on the road to New Canton," Eight panted. "Can't see this Tess yet, so fill us in Janine what happened?"

"She was one of the people from Brunswick."

"Aahhh," Eight nodded. "The people we rescued from the fire and the zombies."

"Correct. Most of those people are refortifying Brunswick, but we evacuated a few of them to us here at Abel."

"We're welcoming like that." Eight said sarcastically.

"Far too welcoming as it turns out," agreed Janine. "She showed quite an interest in our technology, before the outbreak she had been a computer science student and Manning College or so she said, I can always use an extra pair of hands for repairs, so I foolishly trusted her. Last night I gave her the key to the communication store room. This morning, she filled a backpack and tried to stroll out of the front gate. It's only because Roman, Runner Nine, wondered why someone was heading **_out _**with a full backpack, and sounded the alarm that we know she was gone at all.

"And we know she's gone to New Canton?" Eight asked.

"She's sent them three transmissions last night. Via Rofflenet. I keep copies."

"You read all our emails?" Eight asked in shock.

"I don't **_read_** them," protested Janine. "I just keep them. In case of situations like this."

"But still you could read them." Eight pointed out.

"Only if our security demanded it, which in this case, it does." The woman said in defense of herself.

"No, I'm just glad you're watching over us Janine. So what's she taken? Why are we worried over a few laptops?"

"Laptops and storage device." Janine corrected. "All our backups, she's taken our knowledge Eight. There's no cloud storage anymore, she's got our plans, our supply lists, the information we traded food and guns for and…

"And?"

"All our Rofflenet mails. Including…" Janine's voice trailed off.

"Just say it, Runner Five's okay." Eight prompted.

"Including all your transmissions to the military base."

Runner Eight turned to Five and looked at her grimly. "Well then, guess you and me better put on a burst of speed Five."

Claire nodded, they picked up their pace. They needed that information back.

"This is bad news Five," Eight explained. "If that girl gets those files to New Canton, well, there's things in there we don't want them knowing. Now I'm sorry, but it's going to be difficult for me to give you much information, for one thing, we can't talk at the base, never know who might be listening, as this little traitor shows. For another, we're working on a need to know basis here, we still have a job to do you and me, but since that rocket launcher attack on your helicopter, well my bosses have put that job on ice until we work outs what's going on. There'll be no mission briefing for you just yet I'm afraid."

Runner Eight paused a moment and scanned the horizon. "What's that? Is that her? No, just another zombie, run on we'll get her." She continued with her explanation. "What can I tell you. I'm military. I guess you know that already. The major's in the north meeting up with some of the big chiefs Janine's the only one at Abel who knows, well you can't keep anything from the woman who controls the communications can you? And she's… well she's spikey, buy she's trustworthy."

"I can hear you, you know." Janine pointed out.

"Lord love ya!" Eight said smiling. "I'd say that to your face you're a spikey loner and you can be damn difficult to deal with, but I trust you with the last bullet in my pistol."

Janine sounded slightly mollified now. "All right then.

"Any news?" Eight asked her. "Do you know how far she's got?"

"No, we think she's sticking to the wooded areas, where we can't find her on the cameras. And she doesn't have a tracker of course. And another bit of bad news."

Eight sighed. "What else would you ever bring me Janine?"

"I've located and read all her Rofflenet transmissions from the point she arrived at Abel, she hasn't just stolen those drives by chance, New Canton asked her to get them. They've offered her private sleeping quarters, unlimited hot water, fruit rations…"

Runners Five and Eight looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Wow, what do they want so badly that they'd offer such luxury for it?" Eight wondered.

"They want to know about our coms, so they can bring them down, make us blind and deaf, defenseless." Janine explained.

The two women scanned the horizon once more, searching for any sign of the traitor fleeing from them. They could hear a loud knocking on the com shack door as they started running once more.

"Who is it?" Janine asked in annoyance.

"It will be one of Sam's friend's Janine," Eight teased. "Asking if he can come out to play.'

Claire frowned at someone speaking of Sam that way. The urgent knocking continued.

Janine yelled at whomever was knocking. "Mister Yao is on his rest break, and if that is one of his Xbox demanding playmates the answer is still no we don't have the extra power to."

"It's me," a male voice yelled. "It's Ed! It's urgent."

"Oh, come in…," Janine responded more politely. "What is it?"

"Is it Tess that they are saying?" Molly gurgled happily in the background, Claire could imagine her sitting on Ed's hip. "That she's run off to New Canton? Settle down Molly, settle down. But is it 'er? Tess?"

Janine nodded. "Yes that's right. But what.."

"Oh damn, me, I err." Ed stuttered.

"What?" she asked.

"I might have… damn, well the thing is, she was so. Settle down Molly. It's okay. Tess was so interested in hearing about what I was doing, she asked all these questions and, I might have told her here this bloke kept two working motorbikes in a shed behind the Last Elbow's Diner, in between here and New Canton, and I knew they were in good knick because I'd been out to check 'em a few days ago but, I fought we'd leave them safe and sound until we needed them, because they were dry and…"

"Two motorbikes?" Eight said incredulously as they overheard the conversation.

"Halfway between here and New Canton?" Janine added.

"Shit," Claire swore.

"That will be where she is heading then. Last Elbow's diner I know it, come on Five, if we don't beat her there, we'll have lost her for good."

Runner Eight changed direction and Five raced on behind her. It was not long before a small row of abandoned stores and shops came into view.

"There, there I see her! She's breaking the cover of the trees." Eight said excitedly. Tess was running across the clearing heading for the buildings.

"Yes, I have her on the cameras now," Janine acknowledged. "If you just keep going, speed up you can make it there."

The two women put on a burst of speed and started cutting the distance between them. Tess, while fit, was not able to outpace the two women two ran literally every day for their lives.

Ed looked at the screen peering at Tess. "What's that she's got?" He asked.

Five and Eight could hear it now. "A noisemaker? Clever thing. She's hoping to attract zoms towards us. It's working, there's one behind us now. She's only a few hundred meters away. We can get there first if we keep sprinting. Come on."

The distance was closing rapidly now. "Hey Tess!" Eight yelled. "Tess you damn traitor! Selling us out for a clean bed and a hot shower eh?"

Ed was speaking to Janice, but they could still hear him. "Look Runner Five and Eight are ahead of Tess now, not by much now. What's Runner Eight holding?"

"That would be a bastinado…?" said Janine "Or billy club I believe. Runner Eight is rather handy with her weaponry and… excellent swing! A boundary!" There was a dull thud and a muffled groan as Eight smacked Tess in the back of the head with the long hard club.

"That's gotta hurt." declared Ed.

"We got her!" Eight said trying to catch her breath. "And her backpack full of data storage."

"Yes, we saw. Very effective." Janine replied. Eight turned off the noisemaker and put it in her backpack.

"What do you reckon we should do with her then? There is a zom approaching."

Ed spoke up as he stared at the video feed. "That chute's fairly secure. If you put her on the upper floor and kick the ladder away…"

"Leave her a weapon just to be sporting." Janine suggested. "Perhaps that excellent bastinado."

Eight grinned. "And of course that would leave those two motorbikes, one for me and one for Five. I believe we're coming back home in style."

"Jolly good Eight." replied Janine.

Claire at that point had to confess to Sara she does not know how to drive a bike. The woman gave her a crash course and they drove slowly, but it was still quicker than running.

A crowd gathers at the entrance as they ride the motorbikes back to the town and delivered them to Ed. Sam stood with Doctor Meyers at a distance, watching the two woman return and the crowd that formed around. Maxine said that Five hardly spoke to anyone except him. He was sure the good doctor was mistaken, but watched curiously now to see what Five would do.

He watched her look over at the com shack. Now was when she usually waved and headed over to chat to him, they'd walk to get their rations and have their nightly meal together. Instead, she turned and immediately headed directly for the housing complex.

He excused himself from Maxine and found himself following her. By the time he got to the sleeping quarters, she was nowhere to be seen. Everan was lying on his bunk, reading a book, so he asked him if he had seen Five.

"Oh yes, she grabbed that notebook she carries around everywhere and left again.

Sam searched everywhere and could not find her. Thinking that he was walking in circles, he looked up and saw her sitting high on top of the com shack looking out over the landscape surrounding Abel. A ladder was built against the shack for access to the aerials, so he climbed on up after her.

Claire was immersed in her latest drawing and so sure of her privacy that she did not hear Sam until he was at the top of the ladder and climbing over next to her.

"Now why on earth are you hiding up here?" he asked.

Claire slammed the book shut so he could not see what she was doing. She blushed sat down next to her.

"You keep a diary?" He asked in surprise.

She shook her head. "No, well kind of..." she was very self-conscious about her drawings. It was something very personal to her.

"Then may I ask why you are sitting up here?" He looked out over the landscape before them. "Apart from the great view. I mean this really is something compared to sitting down below all day."

"Can you keep a secret?" She asked him.

"Of course." Sam said with a raised eyebrow

She bit her lip considering him thoughtfully then handed him the worn leather bound book from her lap.

Sam took it and opened it to the first page. He had been wrong; it was indeed not a diary, but a sketchbook. Claire wasn't making diary entries, she was drawing.

"Please don't mention this to anyone." She begged.

He thumbed through the pages. The earlier drawings were from before the zombies, but were very dark and moody. Then they changed to scenic drawings, some zombies, some people he did not recognize. The most recent were filled with images and people of Abel, including some pictures of him sitting at his coms desk, or working the radio. He had to admit the images she had drawn of him were quite flattering.

"Why do you keep it hidden," he exclaimed in astonishment. "These are really good! I can't draw a stick…" He looked at her curiously now. "Is that what you did before, you know all this, where you an artist?"

She laughed shook her head. "Good lord no!"

"Graphic design?" She shook her head. "Video game design? Professional graffiti artist..?"

He keeps trying to guess It warmed his heart to see her laugh, as it was not something he had seen her do, since she arrived. He found after making her laugh once, he wanted to hear more of it. Sam tried unsuccessfully to getting her to talk about past. His guesses were becoming more and more outrageous, causing her to laugh even more.

Eventually a shadow passed over her face. "I don't really like to talk about it Sam."

Sam smile. "That's ok." And the subject was dropped. He assumed she had lost family, friends, perhaps her lover or husband. A lot of people were unable to discuss their lives before the world went to chaos without breaking down. He assumed it was the same with Claire.


	8. Chapter 8 - Supply Run

**Chapter 8 – Supply Run**

Runner Five left the sound of the horns behind as the gate closed down behind the Runners that left that morning. She ran toward the main road slowly, warming up waiting for Sam's cheerful voice to echo through her headset, letting her know what her destination and mission for the day was. She knew it was a supply run, and ran patiently waiting for details.

But it was not Sam's voice she heard. Janine came on once more. Five groaned. She did not really like the woman, and she did not trust her the way she trusted Sam. Claire wondered briefly if he were avoiding her after she refused to tell him her story. It was true that she did not like talking about it. Everyone treated her differently once they knew. Well Doctor Meyers did not but she was a doctor.

"Runner Five," came her annoying voice.

Claire heard Sam's voice in the background, her heart started beating faster just at the sound of it. _What the hell is happening to me? _She thought to herself. "Just give it to me a sec…" Sam was saying.

"Heeeyyy… Runner Five." She smiled automatically in response, this was better; she was more confident of what was going on with Sam running the show. "We're changing things up a bit… isn't that exciting!" his tone was slightly sarcastic indicating he was anything but excited. He sighed and turned his attention back to Janine. "Look you just keep this button pressed in, when you're talking and make sure you lean this way, so your body sort of, you know, extends the area a bit, and..

"Good grief, is this the way you've been managing all these months?" Janine asked.

"Yeah pretty much… but yeah I make it work."

Five started laughing over her headset, unable to help herself. Sam was going red.

But if you just plugged this in here, "Five could hear the sound a jack being inserted into its correct position, then you can sit back and the signal's better.

Five started laughing even harder, and had to stop running in order to get it under control. "Oh Sam…" she said.

"I errr… yeah I knew that." He protested. "No I didn't, I didn't know that at all.

"Soooo, Runner Five," he said changing the subject, "treat for you today. Janine here will be your controller, leading you off on a very special assignment. Won't you Janine."

"Don't patronize me Mister Yao.

I wasn't! I didn't mean… I.. ugh..

_Janine was really such a bitch at times._ Claire thought.

"Runner Five. Just run." Janine commanded her.

"Certainly Janine. In which direction? Or do I just run circles around the perimeter of the farm for the next hour?"

Janine chose to ignore her sarcastic comment. "Very simple expedition for you today Runner Five, nothing too taxing, though it is important that it's done swiftly."

Thankfully Sam was still on the line with her also. "That's why we call them Runner's you know," he responded sarcastically. Five actually grinned and had a hard time stifling her laugh.

"Yes, quite." Janine continued to explain Runner Five's mission. "We're low on cable, electronic supplies, that sort of thing. They're getting harder to find as time goes on. Whether corrodes, rats gnaw, looters, well loot. So I need you to head towards New Canton."

"New Canton?" Sam asked curiously, not sure if he heard correctly.

"That is what I said. It's all very straight forward Mister Yao. We treat New Canton as our enemy, why?"

"Because… because they what… enforced marshal law over there; they refuse to take our people in when they are under attack; and they're getting too big. And they're having dangerous outbreak of zombie plague?"

"And we just retrieved Intel back from a New Canton spy!" Five added over the headset, but was also ignored.

"They're still human Mister Yao. If we humans can't stick together, we can't expect to survive this extinction threat. I've been in touch with the people at New Canton; they'll be waiting for Runner Five.

"I don't think that sounds as good as what I think you think it sounds."

"It's all going to be fine. Just keep running Five, everything's going to be fine, trust me."

_Trust me? _Five groaned.

"That's the last thing you should say in situations like this." Sam commented, echoing her thoughts.

Claire ran up the road toward New Canton, listening to one of the Runners report a large group of zombies in the wooded valley. Runners were to avoid that area at all costs.

The clearer and louder Five sung as she ran directly correlated to how nervous she was. She half sung and half hummed a slow jazzy Fiona Apple tune as she ran that mirrored her current feelings. The headset sprang to life suddenly and Five started hearing the middle of a conversation occurring in the com shack.

"I don't need to be in touch with all of them. As you know, Mister Yao, we set up a rudimentary form of the internet which allows communications via a kind of bulletin board operated by ham radio. I've contacted one or two people in New Canton telling them about our needs for parts. They've kindly offered to let us have some, and I have no doubt we'll return the favour in due course."

"Yes, I do know." Sam asked. "Why are you telling me something I already know saying as you know?"

"I suspected give your inability to work your own aerial that you might not actually know." Claire thought Janine really may have had a point there.

"Hmm. Well, as you know, that switch you just flipped with your elbow when you turned around is letting Runner Five hear our entire conversation." Sam added smugly.

"Oh, I err, carry on Runner Five, and yes run!"

Claire was glad she heard that. Janine did not sound as confident as she would have her believe. She had not dealt with New Canton directly, but someone that was willing to steal information they probably would have gladly traded was up to no good. Someone had already tried stopping her from arriving at Abel. What really was going on and who could she trust?

_Sam. She knew she could trust Sam. _Maybe she could trust him with her secret.

Sam's voice came in a whisper in her ears. "She's gone to the bathroom." He whispered quietly with a laugh in his voice.

Five could not help but giggle quietly in response. She could hear him smiling. "To be perfectly honest, I mildly suspect she might have bugged the coms desk, com shack, coms desk…. Can you hear me Janine" he whispered again.

Five snorted now at the same time Sam laughed. "Stop it," she whispered in response, "I'm trying to be quiet here."

'Yeah, she can't hear me. Well, she wouldn't say if she could hear me. That woman is tricky." He took a deep breath and his voice turned serious. "Listen, she's coming back in a second, and umm... I know she's very good at her job, but juuuuust to be on the safe side, I'm keeping as many scanners focused on you as I can, ok?"

Claire breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Sam." She was glad he was watching out for her.

"What are you doing Mister Yao?" Janine had apparently returned.

"Nothing! Sam said guiltily. "Just talking to Runner Five, as my job, my job is talking to Runner Five, doing my job.

"Yes, that's your job. While you're here Runner Five, slight diversion, if you just head towards the large green building, you should be seeing on your right, my contact tells me there will be some electrical supplies. It's a Sheetland electrical engineering building.

"You know what those are on this monitor up here right?" Sam pointed out.

"Oh yes and there's quite a large concentration of zombies in the area so do run."

"So do run!" Five exclaimed over the headphones, "What the fu…," there was a small click on the headphone and she knew Sam had muted her momentarily.

She slowed down surveyed the scene. There were zombies in the streets and no way to avoid them. She looked up and at the buildings surrounding the area. Going over the over rooftops and dropping down behind the building seemed like the best way to approach the area.

Sam and Janine watched as Runner Five, stopped running and instead began scaling the pipes and drains of the buildings, clamouring to the top. She had perfected the skill during one of her many attempted escapes from the various institutions she was kept at over the years.

"Very good Runner Five, you were quite right to recommend this one Mister Yao." Janine remarked as they watched her scale the building and run quickly and quietly across the rooftops. "A fine and very efficient competent worker."

"Yeah." Sam agreed. "We don't want to lose Runner Five," he added nervously, "just bear that in mind."

"There's nothing to be alarmed about Mister Yao. Everything is going well. My contact, Hershay Hatarb, in New Canton has arranged for a cache to be waiting for us to pick up just outside the city. The rebels in the city are very eager for us to make contact."

"The rebels?" Sam said incredulously. "Are you trying to start some kind of war with New Canton?"

"We all know New Canton is going to fall Mister Yao. It's only a matter of time and when they do, some of them will want to join up with us."

"Err yeah… you know what a city like New Canton falling means." Sam pointed out. "There's seventeen thousand people in that complex. When the city falls, that's won't be seventeen thousand happy people wondering over here with blankets and picnic baskets. It will be seventeen thousand zombies caused by someone who was too afraid to admit they got bitten."

"All the more reason for us to help some of them get out now, we do need to be there on time Runner Five, so pick up the pace."

Five bit her lip to keep from responding again. Something about all this felt very, very wrong. Janine had no idea what it was like out here in the field; with zombies everywhere. It was really easy to sit in the control booth and order someone to run to their death. Sam did not distance himself from that responsibility. Perhaps that was why she trusted him more.

"Your contact should be meeting you just over the edge of the ridge from where you are right now, keep running."

"The blind ridge ahead I can't see over?" she asked with only a slight trace of sarcasm

"Sorry Five," Sam apologized, "Cameras are blind there." .

She ran out into the clearing toward the top of the hill. Once she reached the top, Five heard the distinct sound of guns being cocked and loaded. Shots sounded out, fired over her head. "Runner from Abel Township!" someone yelled.

"It's a trap." Sam said with no trace of surprise, as if this is what he expected all along.

"Take evasive maneuvers." Janine said.

"What the fuck?" Claire screamed over her headset, scampering off the horizon line to avoid being hit by flying bullets.

"What evasive manoeuvres!" Sam yelled at Janine in frustration.

"Runner from Abel Township," the man with the gun on top of a large truck yelled. "You're surrounded.

"There's only one evasive manoeuver available." Sam was telling Janine.

"There's no chance for escape." New Canton threatened.

"Runner Five, Runner Five, there's a break in the …" Sam tried telling her. It was hard to hear with three people speaking to her at once.

"Stop not a step further." The New Canton soldier demanded. "Or I shoot to kill!"

"There's a lot of people surrounding you," Sam warned. "If you keep heading in the direction you're going you might go out of scanner range, but Runner Five, just run."

The direction Sam sent her in was the off limits area full of zombies that the Runners had reported earlier. As she sprinted along the uneven hill, she tripped and fell. Claire rolled uncontrolled down the steep valley until she finally came to an uncontrolled stop in the underbrush. There she laid unconscious and unresponsive, blood pouring from an open wound on her head.


	9. Chapter 9 – A voice in the dark

**Chapter 9 – A voice in the dark**

Runner Five woke up hours later and knew immediately that she was in trouble. The sun had set, it was pitch black out, and she no idea where she was. She kept deathly still as her ears strained in the silence to hear if anything was around. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she could see was in a heavily wooded area, most likely at the bottom of the valley she had been running for. She slowly flexed her muscles, testing quietly for injuries to make sure she was still able to move.

She sat up slowly, her headset was also broken, the microphone snapped off somewhere during her rapid decent. She turned the headset on, glad when the tiny light showing power lit up. Moving the dials, she tried tuning in; praying that Sam or anyone would be still talking. She knew she had to keep moving, find her way back to Abel or any form of shelter. No one lasted in the dark alone without shelter.

Her patience paid off as she moved the tuner through the static. "Runner Five, Runner Five, come in Runner Five, can you hear me?"

_Oh thank God it was Sam, he hadn't given up on her. She had no idea how much time had passed or what time of night it was._

"Runner Five, come in Runner Five. You out there? Runner Five. Calling Runner Five. Come in Runner."

She fiddled the dial until most of the static cleared out. Her eyes were now adjusted to the dark, and though she could hear some moaning in the distance she could not see anything close by. It was hard to judge distances in the dark though.

Claire heard Sam sighed. "I don't know if you can hear me. Our scanner's down. It never works that well at night anyway. And a couple of bits of equipment have broken down so, so there is no way to see where you are." His voice grew sad. "Truth is, I don't even know if you're alive. Odds aren't good right? Hey odds aren't good for any of us, but I'm still…" Sam took a deep breath. "Well, guess I'm still alive, that's about all I can say."

Claire could picture him sitting at his desk, staring at the screen in frustration. His hair usually started sticking up at that point, after running his hands through it all day.

"Runner Five, we don't know where you are. We know you didn't get taken by New Canton. We managed to track that much. But you haven't come back…," his voice trailed off. "It's the middle of the night, Runner Five, aaannd there's a reason we don't send patrols out at night. If you're where we think you might be, to the north, the area's swarming with zombies, and they often head for us at night. If they get here before you we're going to have to bar the gates. There'll be no way for you to get in and we'll have to watch…"

His voice cracked slightly. "You're not even my second Runner Five, you know that? You're my forth. I guess there's no better reason to make it back than any of the others."

_I can't make it back if I don't know where to go. _Claire looked around her in panic. It was disorientating. She could hear his voice, but had no direction which to go. First she needed to get out of this valley, and she climbed up out of the ravine to higher ground while he talked.

"But we've put the red beacon on top of the tower. So I you can see it, my best advice is, run."

She scrambled to the top of the hill while Sam went quiet for a moment. She had never found herself in this situation before, out alone and vulnerable after dark. Always, **_always_** she had found shelter hidden away somewhere protected until the sun's rays illuminated the dangerous shadows.

She reached the top of the valley and looked around desperately. She missed it the first time in her panic, but found it. A distant red beacon blinking on top of the com tower. _Thank you Sam….If I make it through this I'm going to kill Janine._

"Soooo, ahh, I'm just going to keep talking for a while. I mean, for all I know I could be talking into the ear of a zombie. Hey, undead fiend who used to be my friend Runner Five. At least I can irritate you with the sound of food you can't get at." He laughed. "Over here. Look at this tasty human meat." The laughter trailed off as if he realized what he had just said.

Claire blushed despite her situation as she imaged Sam… well. She pushed that thought aside as she kept running toward the blinking red beacon.

"Yeah… we've all gone a bit crazy these past few months, haven't we Runner Five. I mean you know. That's the thing you don't really think about during an apocalypse. How it's going to affect your ability to be like, normal, ever again."

_Easy for me, I was never normal in the first place._

"Do you think we've just forgotten how to be normal? Do you even remember what normal felt like?"

_No, Sam, I've never been normal. At one time I would have given anything to be normal…_

"I called you my friend before just now didn't I? Is that cool wit' you? I mean, well I'm definitely not your friend if you've gone grey. But, I feel like we have a kind of, simpatico, something? Not that we've ever _really _talked. I guess we're talking now. Sooo… yeah, let's just talk like normal people. Buddies or something."

Claire could tell what he was doing. Sam was hoping she was on the other end somewhere and could still hear him but just not respond. She wished there was a way she could let him know that she was still alive out here.

"Before all this, I bet you had a pretty good life eh? Someone like you, yeah, I can see it. People you cared about, job you didn't hate."

_Is that what he thought of her? _Claire started in surprise and smiled desite herself. _Was he ever off the mark._

"I know people don't like to talk about that stuff. Think forward, the Major says, rebuilding is key. But, I feel like… we have to remember what it was like so we know what we're building. Don't we? I don't mean escalators and shopping malls and frozen yoghurt. Although I could really go for an ice cream roll right about now. Do you remember those things. Cake outside and ice cream in the middle. Or was it, or was it the other way around. I don't even remember anymore. Wait.. wait wait.. hang on I'll go and check. And yeah, if you're still Runner Five, keep running."

_No! _Claire wanted to scream. _Don't leave me. _The silence filled the night and she heard zombies behind every tree. She froze, trying to steady her pounding heart and took several steadying deep breaths. Forget the zombies, just run and get to the gate. She could hear them closing in behind her, but she dared not look back. It was hard to tell the exact distance, but she guessed she had another fifteen minutes until someone may catch a visual of her from the walls.

Sam's voice drowned out the horrible moaning that followed her. "Okay, so hi, yeah right. Two things, a, it was cake outside and ice cream on the inside. B.., apparently checking this is not a good reason to wake Janine up in the middle of the night. Okay? Okay got it."

_What? The bitch that left me stranded out here is catching her beauty sleep already?_

"So umm, where were we. Yeah right before. Want to know what I did before this? Well, I imagining our brimming over with enthusiasm, with these mad skills I expect you think I was a deejay or a radio host or something like that don't you? Nuh uh! I was a student man, fourth year engineering degree." He paused and Claire could tell he was reliving memories. "I was just for the record, really really really really terrible at it. I didn't even enjoy it, that's the sad part. I tried so hard, and my parents. They wanted me to be good at it so much… yeah well. I guess at least they died not knowing I was probably going to fail the course. My dad would have been so angry. He was so angry when I failed French, and he didn't even care about French. He's Chinese, he's all, you have dishonored the family, et cetera, et cetera. My mum wasn't angry. Just sad."

Sam's voice took started to drop in volume and tone as if he was ashamed about what he was going to say next. "You know what's really bad Runner Five. You know what's really horrible. This, what I'm doing right now, is what I wanted to do. I used to mess around at the radio station at Uni. I wanted to talk on air, or work behind the scenes or something, and I thought, well I thought maybe if I failed my degree I could just go and do what I wanted, but… yeah but probably they wouldn't."

He paused for a moment, as if decided whether to admit this or not. "What's really, really bad is, some days… some days I'm grateful for all this." He found himself explaining. "Because I don't have to get up in the morning, and go to classes and pretend I care about engineering." He took a deep breath and let out a sad sigh, needing some fresh air. He was probably talking to himself anyway. "I'll be right back."

Claire was shocked at Sam's confession. Not because of what he just told her, but because they mirrored her own thoughts. Her life before this had not been pleasant, not by any means. Now she had a freedom she had never experienced before. He sounded so ashamed of himself for feeling that way. _I need to let him know he's not alone._

Sam was back. "Hey. Hey. Hi. Err I say 'Hi', possibly I mean, damn you fiend who has taken the body of Runner Five and is using it for its own horrifying purposes. Or, possibly I mean, sorry you're dead Runner Five. That stuff's weird isn't it? Not the people you actually know are dead. I know my parents are dead, well I, err, well I know they're dead and it was pretty horrible, but like my sister. No idea. Well, she'd uh, just started her first year at Uni. Law. She was actually good at it, liked it. Make my parents proud. No besmirching family honor. Came home with top grades in the class after her first term. You remember that Christmas before, well the fall of civilization."

_Not particularly, I have not celebrated Christmas in years. Sometimes I would not even know it was Christmas at the institution._

"All the praise for her. I was jealous man. And then, the thing happened. While she was staying with her boyfriend and we couldn't get her on the phone and she… well she never knew our parents had turned, and oh I don't know. She's probably dead. But you never know right?"

_You never know. I don't know what happened to any of my family. They abandoned me years ago. _

"You know what else is weird. How some person you barely knew, will just suddenly, come floating into your head. Like this guy, this guy I used to see in engineering lectures, he was a really tall guy, red hair, gangly looking. I think his name was Steve or Simon, or, I dunno if ever spoke to him." Sam laughed. "He used to pick his nose in lectures, as if no one could see him, we could all see him man… and. I hadn't thought about him for a minute, and this morning, I just woke up from dreaming about him and I realised that I couldn't remember his name. And he's probably dead and maybe I'm the only person alive that remembers him at all anymore. And maybe you know, well maybe that's how it will be with you Runner Five. If you're gone. Who will be left to remember you?"

He took a deep breath. "Ahhh eww sorry, I guess that's not too inspiring. What I mean is, run, Runner Five, run on home, if you can."

Claire had always known she was meant to be brushed aside and forgotten. That was how her family had always treated her before, so that thought did not bother her. The thought that upset her most, was if she died, that Sam would not remember her. That upset her because already she could not get him off her mind.

The blinking red light was appearing higher above her, meaning she was getting closer. She was extremely tired and running out of energy quickly; she had been out since first thing that day and she was bruised and bloody from her fall down the hill.

"Ohh I dunno Five, they said to me just now that I should probably hit the sack sometime soon. They'll send on someone else to keep sending out pings through the night, but I got to be honest, we're losing hope here. A couple of zoms have arrived at the gates and that, usually means the bigger horde is on its way. Maybe only a few minutes 'til we bar the gate."

_Oh god no, I'm nearly there.. _ She wanted to scream, so was so close now.

"Another good runner gone, another piece of equipment lost. And we're…." he trailed off. "The next time I see your face maybe I'll have to shoot you in the head. No one stays sane though this Five. Whatever the future is, it's not gonna be like the past. No ice cream rolls will make it better, no one's saying their proud of me would make it okay. Maybe you're better off is what I'm saying. I know we're not supposed to say that but sometimes I think, yeah, maybe if you, if you don't have to try to build the future you're one of the lucky ones. Maybe… "

Someone shouted at Sam from behind, but she could not make out what they said. "What…?" He was talking to someone behind him now. "What is it, I told you, the scanner's down."

Sam's voice rang out excited. "Oh my god! Is that! Runner Five! I can see you!"

He stood so quickly he knocked his chair over backward and ran down and out of the com station. He'd never had a Runner return after being out lost for this long. Not without taking up shelter somewhere.

"Runner Five, Runner Five! If you can hear me, I can see you, oh my god Runner five, you can't see them but there's a tail behind you, of zombies about thirty of them, they're getting closer. Oh don't they make that noise at night. Run runner five, run, run run! Raise the gates!"

Claire sighed in relief as she ran through the gate into Sam's waiting arms. Sam had never been so relieved to see someone as she stumbled through the gates. "We've got you Runner Five! You're home!"

His relief was short lived when she dropped all the supplies she was carrying except one bag. With that one in tow, she stormed off to Janine's quarters. Sam followed closely behind. Claire pounded on the door, her face inscrutable.

Janine looked annoyed when she answered the door, but the look quickly vanished once she saw who was waiting on the other end. Claire threw the wiring and cabling she had retrieved and said very quietly. "You are never, ever to act as my operator in the field again. Do we have that clear?"

She then turned on Sam who was standing quietly behind her. "And you!" she exploded. "What the fuck were you thinking leaving hanging to go check on a damn ice cream roll? Listening to you was the only thing that was keeping me sane out there. Leaving me was an asshole thing to do."

With that she stormed off to the hospital to get checked for bites. Sam was waiting impatiently outside to see if she was alright and to apologize. He also realized that she must have heard everything he said.

He pushed off from the wall he had been leaning against once she appeared. "Are you still angry at me?" He asked apologetically.

"I'm sorry Sam, I never was." She stopped and looked up at him. She looked so small and frightened it took him a moment to remember just how tough she was. "Sam can we talk in private for a moment?" Claire resided in the bunkhouse, Sam has the closest thing to privacy with his cot in the com shack. They turned and began walking there. "I'm sorry I snapped at you Sam. You did nothing wrong, I was just pretty scared out there." She took a deep breath. "I was so worried I was going to get locked out."

Sam opened the door for her and let her enter. He sat on the side of his cot allowing her to take the seat at the desk. "You asked me last night about what I did before all this." Claire took a deep breath. "I don't tell people this, because they always treat me differently afterward."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He reassured her. What people were before all this really did not matter anymore. Society as they knew it was gone.

"I thought it only fair since I heard everything you said earlier. I always thought that no one would ever really understand, and from what you said tonight…." Her voice trailed off and Sam waited patiently for her to continue.

"I was in one of the worst places imaginable when the outbreak started. Saint Vincent's Hospital."

Sam's eyebrow shot up. The hospitals were the worst places to be at the beginning, most never got out of the buildings alive. All the sick people had gone there before they realized the full reality of the situation. "Were you a nurse or doctor?" he asked.

"Neither." She looked at him directly in the eye now. "Long term patient. In the mental ward." There was a long pause. "You want to talk about normal Sam? I've **_never_** been normal." She got to her feet and started pacing the small area. "When all this happened, I stayed the same and everyone else simply joined my level of crazy. You said you felt guilty because sometimes you are glad to be where you are now; well I know exactly what you mean, because I've felt the same guilt every day since."

Claire sat down next to Sam with her head in her hands. He placed a reassuring arm around her shoulders. "And here I thought I was the only one."

She shook her head, sat up, rested her head against his chest and sighed. It felt good to talk about it to someone who did understand. Her breath caught in her chest as his other arm went around her reassuringly. It might seem like a friend reassuring a friend, except Claire could hear Sam's heart pounding rapidly through his thin shirt. She knew hers was beating right alongside in time. She was very aware that she was in his arms, where she felt scared but safe at the same time.

She looked up for a moment and her eyes locked with his. It happened before he could help himself. He leant forward and kissed her softly. She looked at him strangely then stood up and walked away… "Sam…" she started.

He sighed and began to apologize. "I'm sorry, and you don't have to say it. You don't think of me that way, I understand."

Claire spun around and looked at him like he was the crazy one. She walked back to him and stood in front of him now. "No. That is not what I was going to say." She shyly put her arms around him and pulled his head back down towards hers. The kiss completely took his breath away, as this time Claire kissed him with everything she felt. "That is not what I was going to say at all." When she pulled back, she looked at him and smiled. "I was going to ask if you are sure you wanted to do this." She motioned with her hand between the two of them. "You need to know I come with baggage."

"Do I want this?" he copied her hand motion between the two of them. He smiled and nodded. He groaned and kissed her again. "Of course I want this. We all come with baggage, especially now. And I think you… are... amazing." he whispered in her ear. "I'd want this even if we weren't in the middle of a zombie apocalypse."

Claire and Sam fell asleep fully clothed curled up in each other's arms as they talked. For once, Claire did not crave the solitude she usually did and found solace in the company of another.

* * *

Maxine went looking for Sam in the com shack the next morning, it was fairly early and she needed to talk to him about a mission before everyone woke up. If she were to be completely honest, she wanted to see if the rumors were true. That Runner Five had returned to her own bunk since she returned from the attack by New Canton.

Rumors had been flying around Abel about Sam and the new Runner Five. Most assumed that Sam had just developed a crush on the latest pretty girl around his age to arrive. Sam had some pretty strange pre concerted notions regarding Claire. Maxine thought there was more to her that than though, and was hoping not to be disappointed.

She cast a quick glance through the Plexiglas window before she knocked. She smiled as she saw Five curled up asleep in Sam's arms. She turned and left, what she needed could wait for later.

Claire stayed in the com shack with Sam the entire day, after being left stranded, she was given a few days off which to fully recover her energy. She only left to get her backpack with her sketchbook and pencils and returned to spend the day with him as he worked. She sat on his cot, losing herself in her drawing, catching sleep on occasion, while Sam kept an eye on the Runners at the coms desk.

Sam watched Claire as she slept on the cot behind him. His pulse quickened just looking at her. He still was in shock that she actually seemed to feel the same way about him. Her only concern had been his ability to handle her condition. He had thought his situation tough with his strict father. At least he had a father that cared. Her family had committed her when she was sixteen, and she had not seen them since. He could not imagine what that would have been like.

There was a sharp knock on the door as it flew open. It was Jack and Eugene's turn to use the equipment for their radio show. Sam usually stayed and read in the corner; but this time, he held his hand out nervously to the pretty blonde sitting on his bed. "Care to come for a walk?" Claire smiled and nodded, took his hand and throwing the two men a wave, left them with their mouths hanging open.


	10. Chapter 10 - Back to school

**Chapter 10 – Back to School**

The residents of Abel were starting to warm up to Claire more now, for two main reasons. The first was directly related to all the supplies she kept bringing back from her runs. Runner Five would always come back with not just one backpack full, but sometimes two or three depending how far she had to run while being chased by zoms on her way in. The second reason was the obvious blossoming relationship between her and the town's very popular communications operation, Sam Yao.

Claire had been given a few days off from running missions, having been left out stranded for a nearly a full day. Her fall down into the ravine had saved her life, but resulted in many cuts and bruises that needed to heal. She took advantage of the time, pulling her blanket over her head, drowning out noise and light to catch an extra hour's sleep.

Maxine knocked on the com's shack door once more. She had left a few days ago but needed to talk to Sam about a special mission she needed a Runner for. "It's open!" she heard the young man yell out. She stepped in and noticed the disappointment in his face as he saw who it was.

"Hoping for someone else?" she teased the younger man, who blushed, but grinned not denying it.

"Well, frankly yeah." He crossed his arms and looked at her. "Did you come by just to dash my hopes or did you need me for something Maxine?"

The doctor laughed. "Actually, I need to talk to you about a special mission. I need someone that you would recommend for a run, someone quick, who isn't going to talk about what we're doing."

Sam frowned. "What exactly are you up to?" He did not like placing any of the Runners at risk.

"We need to start investigating the contents of that box that Runner Five arrived with the day the helicopter crashed."

He sighed. "Then we should send Five again. She really is the best we have."

"Sure you aren't a little biased now Sam?" Maxine teased him.

Sam snorted. "If I was biased I'd refuse to send her," he joked, and then his voice dropped. "You know the risks the Runner's take. Don't let Claire know, but I'm a nervous wreck every time 'Runner Five' has to go out there."

"You care about her a great deal don't you?" Maxine asked seriously. "How much do you know about her?"

"She's told me about her condition, and how she's working with you to get off the medication, if that's what you're wondering."

Doctor Myers nodded. "Good. She had a hard time before this; harder than most of us; which is probably why she survived so well. Five's tough, but she's inexperienced with men and could be easily hurt, so be careful with her Sam."

Sam looked at the doctor in surprise. "You're worried about her? What about me? Not worried I'll get hurt?"

Maxine looked at him seriously. "Five's been locked up since she was fifteen Sam. In a hospital that I must say did not have a very savory reputation in regards to their treatment of their long term psych patients. You might complain about your parents, but at least you had them."

"Good point."

"You're right to recommend her though," the Doctor agreed. "Five's pretty closed mouthed so I know I can trust her not to say anything about what she's seen. She's cleared for running again tomorrow, so I'll come back then."

Claire meanwhile had not only slept in, but completed her daily morning rituals, and was already on her way to the com shack to spend the day with Sam. A few people waved or stopped and said hello, so it took her longer than normal to get across the other side of the town. It had been three days since Janine had attempted to send her to meet up with New Canton, and her muscles were just started to feel normal once more.

It was not unusual for Sam to have visitors in the com shack. Even though Five had been spending most of her spare time in the building with her new friend, there was a constant stream of visitors; dropping off messages or notices. She was not surprised then to find Doctor Myers talking with Sam when she arrived, but she did blush slightly when he kissed her on the cheek in greeting. The Doctor quickly excused herself and left the young couple alone.

Today was Claire's last day of rest before she headed out on her first run tomorrow. She had been serious when she said she would not run with Janine acting as her operator any longer. Ideally she would only run if Sam was on the radio, but it was not always an option.

She enjoyed the time they could spend alone together, after spending so much time alone institutionalized, sometimes she found it difficult being forced around so many people at once. The com shack with Sam was almost a refuge.

Sam was busy with three different runners so Claire set herself up where she usually did, sitting cross legged on his cot, drawing and chatting when he had a chance. The day passed quickly and soon Sam was reluctantly letting her slip from his arms and return to the bunkhouse. He wanted to ask her to stay with him at night, but did not want to put any pressure on Claire or rush her.

* * *

The sun was shining brightly the next morning, and Runner Five could hear the communication chatter over her headset. She stretched in the main area just inside Abel Township's gates. "Remind me how this goes Sam." She heard Doctor Myers say, imagining the woman as looked at the old ham radio unit in front of her.

"First tell Justin Miles, Runner Eighteen, on the door to raise the gates."

"Raise the gates." Maxine repeated into the microphone.

"Then ask if Runner Five is ready."

"Runner Five, ready?" She heard the doctor try to unsuccessfully cover the microphone as she spoke to Sam. "What do I do if Runner Five isn't ready?"

"Oh Runner Five's always ready."

"So gates are open…" Maxine prompted.

Sam nodded. "We're giving you covering fire and…"

"Runner Five, on special mission for the hospital," Maxine finished. "Go!"

Five started out with a slow gait. She warmed up her legs while still moving quickly towards what used to be the main town in the vacinity. Heading to these more heavily populated places was always more risky. Zombie numbers were dangerously high in these areas, and it was easy for a person become overwhelmed.

"You've been doing excellent work here Runner Five, just excellent. With all the medical kits and supplies you've picked up, our medical centre is no longer a breaking point. We're keeping up with low grade infections and accidents. So; it's time for us to start investigating the contents of that box from the hospital." Claire knew this much about her mission already. Sam had explained the mission to her while they spent the day together yesterday.

"The special mystical box of mystery, that Runner Five picked up on the way in here?" Sam asked with curiosity. He still had no idea what the box actually contained.

"Yeaaahh, that seven year degree I got was in mystical mystery." Maxine laughed. "You weren't one of the people that believed in those anti-zombie charms at the start of the outbreak were you?"

"Pfft!" Sam said indignantly. "Obviously not. And I never got a special protective tattoo either."

Maxine laughed. "What?! Those tattoos people got on their…"

"You will never see that bit of me to find out." The communications operator declared. "Besides, do you see me having being bit by a zombie? Maybe it worked!?"

"After this mission I have an invisible rabbit to sell you." The older woman said with a sarcastic laugh. "No, don't look for it. You can't see it." Claire laughed quietly to herself before Maxine spoke directly to her. "All this aside Runner Five, I'm going to ask you to head towards the spire to the south."

"Where the swarms are?" Sam asked in alarm. If he had known exactly where she was sending Claire today he may have recommended someone else.

"Where the swarms are." Maxine confirmed. "I'm sorry about that, but I badly need a confocal microscope and the university buildings are the place to look. You're likely to encounter a lot of shambling dead, I'm sorry."

"Should have made Runner Five get one of those tattoos on her…" Sam interjected.

"They're unhygienic!" Maxine interupted him, "Better just to run!"

Five laughed out loud now. "Sam are you just trying to find an excuse to see my…?"

"No! Certainly not." Sam protested quickly cutting her off, then paused a moment in thought. "Not that I would exactly say **_no_** mind you…"

Maxine and Five laughed at the same time, but Five sobered up quickly. "Okay, quiet guys, I need to concentrate and find my way to the security office, then find confocal microscope for the Doc."

Claire knew well were the security offices for the University were. They were the same company that provided security for St Vincent's hospital. The hospital was on the same grounds as the university itself, as many were. Five confidently made her way to the small office, one block away from the campus. This would not be the first time she had infiltrated this building.

Janine had been so kind to provide them with equipment that Five had personally found earlier; solar power for the security servers to bring them back online. She quickly set up the system Janine had constructed and threw the cable over the side of the building. Clare made her way back down and fished the line inside the window with a stick. After making the necessary connections, the server rebooted successfully. It did not take long for her to hack in and set up the broadcast system once more, bringing the university cameras online, connecting to Sam.

The first camera to come online was the one in the security room itself. The two people watching from the safety of the com shelter watched as Five typed quick efficient commands into the system, restarting the systems servers. Sam watched as her confident fingers flew over the keys in fascination.

"Are they coming online?" she heard Maxine ask.

"Yup. Wow. Look at that, Janine and Five know their stuff. Security cameras all over the university on our little screen here. Wow, there's…"

"That's a lot of zombies…" the doctor agreed.

"Yeah… a **_lot_**. Why do they… cluster like that?" Sam asked.

"We don't know. It doesn't really make sense. Other hunting animals will spread out unless they are working on a formation to bring down an animal." She reasoned.

"Like us."

"Yeah, it might be an instinctive behavior. They are very weak individually, but very strong as a pack. They are more likely to defeat us as a massive unit. It doesn't explain though why we see them cluster more in certain places."

"In the hospitals," Sam prompted.

Maxine nodded. "And here. As if they knew the places most important to our long term survival."

"Hmm, maybe they're just looking for a cure, like the rest of us." He reasoned.

"I don't think there is a cure Sam. But if Runner Five can make it through there, we might start to find some answers."

Five made her way out the window of the security building. She ran along the cement window ledge, she would be able to almost reach the university itself from here. She shimmied down a pipe once it was safe, and began running at a rapid pace toward the zombie filled university.

"Look at that." Maxine pointed out to Sam.

Five could almost picture Sam frown. "Hmm what is that?"

"It looks like am makeshift lab, in a tent in the middle of the university concourse." The Doctor sounded confused. "Where they would have been surrounded by fencing. Do you see the fencing?"

"I see where a bit hole's been ripped in it." Sam pointed out. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't Godzilla so…"

"It looks like the zombies got in." Maxine agreed. "They must have been trying to work right up 'til the end. You know, I think my girlfriend was working somewhere here."

"What Paula?" Sam replied in surprise. "Was working here? You never said."

"Yeah. Where's Runner Five?" The doctor asked.

There was a slight pause as they flicked through the different university cameras now available to them. "There… there. Got you on the first security camera coming into the university campus, Five. If you keep going in the direction you are going, you'll come to the tent lab we've been talking about. But hurry, there are zombies, **_everywhere_**." He added nervously.

Five collected a few first aid kits and medical supplies that she passed, throwing them quickly into her bag. She also ran past of the computer labs and threw in a couple of laptops, batteries and power supplies while she was there. The university was a good resource, as not many of the living braved the number of walking dead to risk a resource run. She had picked up a few undead followers now, but not in a number that she was not able to handle. What she was nervous about was being in among the closed in buildings, where too many enclosed spaces could harbor one of the walking dead.

"You're making good time Runner Five, you're just getting to the lab now." Maxine started talking out loud to herself. "What the heck were they doing in that lab that was so important? If they were medical researchers from the university, the government would have tried to chopper them out."

"Did you hear anything at the time? Nose to the ground, ear to the, grapevine, something?" Sam prompted.

"I was working non-stop emergency shifts at the start of the outbreak, at first we were trying to cure people, then trying to sedate them, then ohh… eventually we just started giving morphine overdoses to patients that started to arrive with the bite. It's not a bad way to go, peaceful and we got some live samples of their blood. But I was too tired to make any sense of what we saw. I did hear that some hospital out west managed to stop some people from reanimating but putting them into an insulin coma, although of course, then they were in an insulin coma."

Sam had continued flicking through the different cameras now available to him. "Oh holy moley! Runner Five, Runner Five! There are eight zombies heading for your position from all over the campus."

"It's like the know Runner Five is there." Maxine said watching the screen in wonder.

"Yeah they got extra tingly spider sense or hearing. One of those. We need you to grab what you can from that tent and keep running Five." Claire was gathering as much as she could and throwing it into her backpack. She successfully found several boxes of prescription medications, bandages and more first aid kits. She kept running and now started to loop around back to the entry. Sam started speaking again. "Do you see that, on the floor. The case, what is that? Doc, does that, is that your name written on the case. Doctor Maxine Myers and some numbers, VS72."

"Ohh, ohh…" Maxine sounded like she just thought of something. "I think I know what they were doing. Runner Five, I know you're surrounded, but you have to loop around and try to pick up that case. It's important."

Runner Five sighed softly, she was getting tired, overburdened and the zombies were closing in. "Roger that Doc, I'll run a perimeter of the clearing and see if I can't run back around.

"What, what is that thing?" Sam asked.

"Paula was working here, I, we hadn't seen each other for days, and I didn't know what the team was working on for sure but…"

"Wow that's crazy!" he said in soft wonder. "You think she left you a clue?"

"Paula had been talking about the possibility of it but there was no time to synthesize no time for trials…"

"Don't leave us hanging doc!" Sam said in exasperation.

"If it's VS72, it could be the start of a vaccine…" Maxine's voice trailed off, not daring to believe.

"Well then, I better get this box back to you in one piece to look at it." Five replied. "I can't stop to look for a microscope though now, though I imagine this box is more important."

The group of zombies following Five out of the university had increased to twenty when she turned down Main Street and Sam lost her on camera. The zoms were unable to keep up with her though, and soon she was outpacing them, and they roamed off, moaning in other directions.

Her return run from the campus was a lot slower than the run there, burdened down and tired as she was. Maxine and Sam were both waiting for her at the gate when she arrived. Maxine took the box from her immediately, and they both followed her to the hospital for Five's routine bite check. Claire stripped as Doctor Myers performed the full body check, but she could tell Maxine was clearly distracted by the box left for her from her girlfriend.

Sam had handed in the backpacks of supplies she had gathered while she was being checked out. He was waiting for her outside, and greeted her with soft smile. His break over, Sam needed to return to Comms shack in order to coordinate a mission with another Runner.

"I want to eat and wash up first," she said kissing him lightly on the cheek. "I will meet you there in an hour or so." If there was one thing she did miss about 'before' it was showers; long hot showers. These lukewarm sponge baths that they had now were just no comparison. It did feel nice to be clean again after her run, however. Claire had been returning to the bunkhouse each night, it was only early afternoon so she went to grab her bag and flung it over her shoulder as she headed to the com shack.

People cast knowing smiles her way, as they correctly guessed where she was heading. Claire stopped at Sam's door, her pulse quickening involuntarily as she knocked quietly.

"It's open!" Sam called from his desk.

She could see him smiling at her as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room.

"You're doing great Runner Nine," he was saying. "Turn and head slightly further to the south..."

"Roger that Sam," the unfamiliar voice came over the crackling radio.

Claire had her back to Sam now as she threw her bag onto the small cot that sat along the side of the room. Before she could turn to say hello during the lull in conversation, she was pulled firmly backwards to sit on his lap.

Sam's arms snaked around Five's tiny waist as he pulled her into his arms. She sighed and leant back into him. It did not take long for Sam to become aroused, her delicious bottom wiggled delightfully in his lap as he kissed her exposed neck. She twisted so she could face him and placed innocently light kisses where his neck and shoulder met. A loud groan escaped his lips before he could help it.

"Sorry Sam, what was that?" a voice enquired over the radio.

Sam's eyes shot open. He'd forgotten to turn off the microphone. "Nothing! Sorry!" He stammered as Claire barely contained a giggle. He flicked the switch off as she stood up and moved away from him.

"You need to pay attention..." she reminded him.

Sam sighed, and then grinned, "Yeah but it can wait a sec, there's nothing in his immediate area." He grabbed her hand and pulled her close once more, their hearts racing in unison. His lips captured hers in a sweet kiss of discovery and exploration. It had only been a few days since they realized the feelings that existed between them, but Sam was becoming more confident of that attraction with each day.

One of Claire's arms snaked around Sam's neck as the other wrapped around his waist. The kiss deepened as Sam pulled her even closer, their bodies almost melting together. Claire shuddered as Sam's hand gentle ran along the bare skin under her shirt, and she gasped as it gently circled her breast and his thumb ran across the thin material covering it. Claire pulled back, shocked at the unfamiliar sensations he was arousing in her. She was shaking as pushed him away gently, just as they were interrupted once more by a Runner asking Sam a question.

Sam smiled shakily at her, and then turned his attention back to the job at hand. "Repeat that sorry Runner?"

Five moved away to allow Sam to work, setting herself up with a book on Sam's cot. She was glad for the interruption. She knew at some point she was going to have to tell him exactly how inexperienced with men she really was. After all, what opportunity had she had for boyfriends or dating when she had been locked up for most of her formative years? Claire hoped her lack of experience would not change what Sam thought of her, but she was positive she was the oldest virgin in Abel.


	11. Chapter 11 - Alternates

**Chapter 11 – Alternates**

Claire was stretching in the main square near the gate again, ready to head out on her daily assignment. Sam had mentioned she would be doing another special run for Maxine, but it would be something different from normal. Runner Five like Maxine, considering she was a doctor, and she attended her weekly sessions with the Doctor for the first time like an open discussion with a friend. Then again, now she was also not shackled to the chair or bed, being pumped full of things to make you forget to think. She shuddered and focused on the conversation playing in her headset.

"So, can we ahh..." Doctor Myers was saying.

"Yeah yeah that's fine, I'll tell them, how long should you need?" Sam asked her.

"A normal run should be fine."

Five could almost imagine Sam nodding. "I'll tell them it's a meds run. I know you guys are okay for supplies at the moment, but I'll say you're running low on ahhh, cotton balls? Strepsils? Condoms?"

You could tell something was on Maxine's mind as she did not even smile at Sam's joke. "Tell them we're running low on penicillin alternates, for people with allergies. It's true anyway."

"Okay, so then. My corrugated iron shack is yours for as long as it takes." Sam offered the Doctor. "And aahhh, call if you need me."

"I'll be fine." Maxine reassured him.

"If I could find a way to let you use the equipment completely alone..." his voice trailed off.

"I know, but it's okay. Runner Five could have died retrieving that box. If anyone deserves to know what's in it, you do Runner Five. In amongst some research notes, and samples Paula left me an audio recording, I'm going to play it now for both of us. So, Runner Five, ready?" She switched to the public com channel. "Raise the gates." Sam appeared outside the com shack door and waved as she set off. The large smile he had for her disappeared the moment she left the gate, and was replaced instead for a small frown of worry that did not disappear until the moment she stepped foot back here with him.

The sounds of the sirens going off made Runner Five's hair stand on end. During all her escapes from the hospital over the past few years, if there was one thing she had learned: Silence was golden. The covering fire added to the noise that would draw every zombies attention in a five mile radius. A few zombies that had wondered closer to the fence were taken down as Claire headed once more towards the main town that had supplied the area.

Maxine started speaking quietly. "She made a cd, a cd like it was 1998. I guess she thought I would be more likely to find something to play it on. Or that rain wouldn't damage it like if she left me an ipod. Or maybe she wanted her ipod. Anyway, only one place to play a cd in this township and that's right here." The doctor sighed heavily. "Okay I can do it, I can do this..." she almost hissed out toward the end.

Five could make out the sound of a CD inserting into an ancient sounding player..

"Here we go..." Maxine exhaled.

"Hello sweetheart," a woman that sounded slightly older than Doctor Myers spoke through the headset.

The doctor's voice broke. "Ohhh..."

"If you are my sweetheart that is," the recording continued. "I suppose anyone could be listening to this. But I am choosing to put that thought out of my mind. This is for my Maxie. Because the phones have stopped working, and I need to believe you're still alive and that'll you'll hear this, one day."

"I love you. And I have to tell you darling, best one. I want to imagine that I am telling you what I saw, because when I imagine that I'm talking to you, I can feel your arms around my shoulders and that makes it easier. I know you wouldn't judge me, or panic, and you... you've always been able to calm me down when I felt afraid."

"I'm so afraid Maxie, I'm just so scared." Paula's voice broke. "I think, oh Maxie, I think I know who patient zero was."

"I'm just going to try to tell you exactly how it was, okay? Just the facts ma'am." Paula's voice was think with tears. "We were working on something, and well I don't even know how to begin to explain it. If you are Maxine listening to this, you'll know what it is already. And if not, well, you're looking for the research notes for VS72 in the secured facility on Tessendorie street, and I don't know how you would even get int here, and there are only about fifteen people in the world who can understand those notes anyway, but, ohh well, if Professor Van Ark is still alive, you can try taking it to him. Or those there is Huebner, who I think is in Milan. Can't say I'm holding out hope."

"If you find it all Maxie, you probably have a better chance than most of working out what went wrong. We were working on VS-72 we thought, I know it sounds crazy. We thought we might help people. Really change the world, really make things better. It was suppose to, ahhh I was about cell regeneration. Like making people heal more quickly. That was the aim, we had been working towards it for more than ten years. And the first trials in rats were amazing, beyond what we'd hoped. We saw some total limb regeneration in adult rats. It was, well we thought we'd win the nobel prize.'

'We think they're going to get in soon. The people, the walking dead. We used to have soldiers here guarding us, but they've been picked off one by one. God I miss you so much right now. Crying. I want to be able to talk to you because I think together we'd work out what to do. And I miss snuggling up next to you, holding you, I miss your arms around me Maxie, I miss the way you smell, and I'm starting to think I'll never see you again." Claire's heart was breaking listening in to the private one way conversation. Paula was alone, sobbing in the recording, while Maxine was sobbing, alone in a small metal shack six months later.

"Five I'm sorry, I need to take a break," she forgot to turn the mike off and was sobbing uncontrollably. Claire wished she had some way to get a hold of Sam, to let him know that he should go in and hold Maxine. She sounded like someone that could use some human contact right now.

"I never meant any of this Maxie, you know we didn't, it was our first human trial of our wonder drug. Just two weeks ago. It seemed like we were going to save the world. We injected fifty people with their first shot no problems, sent them all home, then one man, patient 29, his wife called, he'd started to run a fever, she bought him in, we took a look, we sent him home. God, we sent him home. We sent him home."

"She called again the next morning, overnight, he'd, the fever spiked, he'd collapsed and they'd thought he'd died. And then he woke up, and bit someone."

"We were so sure it had nothing to do with us, I mean biting. It had to be rabies maybe, or mental health issues. We were so sure, until it was too late we were so sure it had nothing to do with us. But Maxie this happened to only one patient out of fifty. There must have been something about him, there must have been something different, but you need to find him. I never knew his name, it wasn't allowed. Patient 29, go look in professor van arks files at Tessendorie, find out what was different about him. It's the only way we can start to find out what's happened."

Gunshots rang through the recording, and she continued speaking, her voice trembling in fear. "Oh, it's okay, it's okay they haven't broken through yet. But we think they will. Oh Maxie, I wish I was with you right now. I wish I could go on talking to you forever, but we're all taking a turn at recording a cd for someone, in the hope that they'll find it. I'll put the cd in a sample case with your name on it. We haven't got very far, but we've been trying to make a vaccine. There should be a way, if were only VS72 there could be a way to stop it. If you find it, maybe you'll succeed where we failed. We're going to fail. There isn't enough time."

"Maxie, this is all I really have to say, I love you, I love you. I love you. I love you."

Maxine was crying openly over the microphone. Claire also had tears running down her face as she gave up trying to collect and simply ran laps until she was able to return to Abel.

"Knock knock," Sam's voice came over the headset, " I ah, sorry, its not the start of a joke, you're probably pleased its not the start of one of my jokes. Its just that there are people waiting to use the… ohh…" he obviously could see that the woman was still crying and upset over what she had heard.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, just give me a minute, I'll be fine," Doctor Myers was reassuring him.

Sam turned to speak to someone that was waiting behind him. "No, you can't come in yet, there's been a… oh… yeah I've arsed up the equipment again, sorry. Sorry, yeah yeah… sorry, I'll sort it out, you'll have to come back in a little while though, okay?"

Maxine was protesting. "No, no its' okay, I can leave, it's okay, there.."

"You can take your time," Sam reassured her. "Did you want me to leave you alone?"

"No, stay," she asked him. "I'm going to play it again."

"Umm, yeah okay," Sam replied quietly.

"Hello sweetheart…"

* * *

Maxine listened to the recording again while Five ran back towards the town. She could not keep running indefinitely, no matter how much she liked the older woman. However it took as long to listen on the way back as it had on the way out, so the recording had just finished playing for the second time once Runner Five made her way in through the gates once again. Jack and Eugene were happily on air now, and Sam was waiting for her just inside the gates as she ran in.

They walked together towards the hospital where Five had to be physically checked for bite marks before she could be cleared from her run. Maxine had returned to the hospital by then, and recomposed herself after listening to what essentially could be called a ghost. Once Claire was cleared, the two of them walked hand in hand back to the bunkhouse where Claire's bed and locker were. "It was nice of you to let her use the com station to listen to that Sam. It was pretty pretty heart breaking listening to the two of them crying like that."

"I know, I heard it the second time. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I found something like that from my family," he admitted.

Claire said nothing, she never had anyone that she cared about that much before. The people who had been kindest to her had actually been the janitorial staff from the hospital. Most of them did not speak much english, but willingly taught an extremely lonely and bored patient how to say a few words here and there over the years in their native languages. Eventually Claire leant broken but passable German and French.

There were few people in the bunkhouse at that time of day, and having a top bunk against a wall afforded Claire a minuscule measure privacy. Since Claire's arrival, most of their time had been spent in the com shack or around various parts of Abel, including many rooftops while she sketched. Being invited up to sit on Claire's bed however, felt strangely intimate to Sam. Not just because it was her bed, but it was also the one and only tiny speck of space that she had to herself. Everything else in Abel was communal. Sam knew he was very lucky to have a cot in the coms shack itself, which gave him more privacy than most.

They had both listened to the message for Maxine from Paula, and it left them both in a quiet, pensive mood. The two of them initially sat cross legged, talking quietly across from one another in Claire's crammed little space. A sad sigh passed over her face, and within seconds she was lying in Sam's arms, facing him. It was oddly quiet in the communal housing, complex, apart from the sound of their breathing. Claire found this time together alone with Sam as he held her felt comforting.

She ran her hand up his chest as she leant closer and shyly kissed him. Sam reacted automatically by pulling her tighter. As the kiss deepened, his hands ran down her back to her waist, then hips, pulling her further into him. Their breathing was becoming more labored and shallow as their kisses grew longer and the desire between them burned hotter.

Claire rolled over and lay on top of Sam. He let his hands roam down her back and over her tight ,round butt and pulled her into him. He groaned at the feel of her laying on top on him. She kissed him, gently biting his lip as he groaned again. She captured his mouth with hers to prevent him making any further noise.

He turned the tables and flipped her over, so she now lay under him. Their kisses grew longer and deeper, as both felt the urgent need and longing burning in their loins. A door slammed shut nearby, reminding them that they were not alone with no privacy, effectively breaking the mood. Claire was shaking, unnerved at how quickly her body had reacted to Sam. She hesitated, and pulled back, nervous and unsure about how to approach her lack of experience with him.

They two now lay side by side once more, which was less conspicuous than lying one on top of another. Their foreheads touched briefly as they smiled into each others eyes. Sam captured Claire's mouth once more with his own. His hand ran up her side, hesitating only slightly before he let this thumb lightly graze over her breast. Claire gasped at the sensation, which only deepened their kiss even further. With a groan her shaking hand grabbed his.

"To fast?" he whispered quietly into her ear.

She nodded silently against his chest, as he smiled and pulled her close. "It's hard to believe you've only been here a few weeks," Sam said quietly, so only she could hear as he kissed her forehead.

"That and we really have no privacy here...," she whispered back. Sound traveled far in here, it only really became more private when it got noisy. Background sounds of people covering other sounds around you. They lay together for a few moments in silence, both needing each other's company after the raw and emotional morning they had shared with Doctor Myers.

Sam had been thinking how he would react if he found a message from his sister. "Did you ever try finding out what happened to your family after you got out Claire?" he asked her curiously.

She stiffened in his arms in surprise at his question. "No, why would I?"

"To find out what happened to them."

One side of her lip curled up into a sneer as she looked at him. "Like they checked up on me for the past six years?"

"I know, I know," Sam said defensively before he kissed her frown away. "I was just curious, if after you finally got out, if you tried to find them. Ask them why they abandoned you there."

Claire sighed, she knew she had to be honest with Sam. She cared about him; a lot. If she was going to live successfully with these people, and have any sort of relationship with Sam, then honesty was not only recommended but demanded. "No need. I found my family the third time I escaped, and I always knew very well why they left me to rot."

"The third time... you escaped…? Sam looked at her surprised. "How many times did you escape all together?"

She grinned wryly and shrugged, then kissed him this time. "I lost count eventually, it was a lot. I haven't come across a lock I wasn't able to pick and I've always had a gift where it comes to computers and security systems."

"You found your family one of these times?" he asked surprised, curious to how that went. "Did you visit them, what did they say?"

Claire laughed, but the sound was not pleasant. It was like she was laughing at herself, and not in a nice way. "I certainly did not visit them, but I did sit outside their house and watch them for a while. And before you ask, they certainly did not miss me." She sat up now and leant against the wall, moving away from him. "I even broke in one time they were not home; not a single picture or reminder of me to be found. In fact you wouldn't even know they even had a daughter at one point."

Sam shook his head, unable to comprehend such a thing. While his parents had always been strict, they would never have done anything like that. "Why did they just leave you there though, I have never heard of anything quite so heartless."

Claire seemed to freeze in his arms. He looked down at her, and her bright blue eyes were cold and fixed on a spot off in space. "I supposed they thought they had good reason," she said slowly. "I killed my brother."

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Thanks for the favourites and follows! Who's excited for Season 2! :D Thank you for those that have read and added this one to their list to follow, fanfiction for this awesome story/app is still limited but I am glad there are other's that are crushing on Sam ;)_

_Hope you are enjoying the backstory I'm throwing into our Runner here._


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